Extreme makeover: Wells Fargo Center gets $60M atrium rehab

The Brookfield-funded public space, called Halo, will include new restaurants and bars

The Wells Fargo Center in Downtown LA
The Wells Fargo Center in Downtown LA

UPDATED, April 5, 2:20 p.m.: Brookfield has decided it’s time for a dramatic makeover at Downtown’s Wells Fargo Center.

The asset manager is spending $60 million to renovate its outdated atrium and replace it with an airy new indoor-outdoor space it’s calling Halo, according to the Los Angeles Times. The new space will feature restaurants, bars, and coffee shops and is meant to attract the public along with the people working in the Wells Fargo Center’s two office towers.

Around 5,000 people work at the Wells Fargo Center, which features two offices towers of 54 and 45 stories. Brookfield purchased the Wells Fargo Center in 2014 in a larger portfolio purchase worth around $3 billion.

The renovation will take the Wells Fargo Center, at 333 South Grand Avenue, out of the 1980s — when the complex was designed — and more in line with contemporary workplace sensibilities, according to the Times..

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Halo will include bike storage lockers, showers, and yoga, fitness, and meditation classes. Brookfield will also host lectures and concerts, the firm said. It’s set to open sometime next year.

Brookfield enlisted famed architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design the new space. The firm also designed the Wells Fargo Center, at a time when prime office properties “were developed as corporate enclaves with the intent of being rather insular and secure,” according to the company’s design director, Paul Danna.[LAT] — Dennis Lynch

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the atrium will be demolished.