HPP pushes into new markets, Skid Row’s roadmap to gentrification: Daily digest

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Los Angeles’ biggest real estate news. We update this page at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 4 p.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 4:30 p.m.

The Federal Reserve reduced interest rates for the first time since 2008. On Wednesday, the Fed cut the target range for the benchmark rate by 0.25 percent to 2.0-2.25 percent. The rate cut is in line with estimates. Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments suggested that this wasn’t the start of a rate-cutting cycle, sending the main stock indexes lower. However, real-estate stocks didn’t do as badly. [Bloomberg] 

Hudson Pacific Properties added 500,000 square feet of leases in Q2. Around 80 percent of those leases were in the Bay Area, the company said in its second quarter earnings report. The L.A.-based REIT saw revenue increase 12.3 percent from the first quarter to $196.7 million.[TRD] 

Victor Coleman and Bentall Centre in Vancouver

Down on Skid Row, change is coming. A rezoning planned in Downtown L.A. could accelerate change in Skid Row. The haven for the destitute and homeless is part of a larger rezoning effort by the city, to promote modern development in the urban core. [TRD] 

YouTube star and former real estate investor dies. Grant Thompson, who was 38, made his career online as “The King of Random,” conducting amusing science experiments and teaching viewers how to do things like open a coconut without any tools. The former house flipper said he was inspired to make explainer videos after learning about the causes of the housing collapse a decade ago. Thompson died in a paragliding accident in Utah. [TRD] 

Grant Thompson, creator of popular YouTube channel ‘The King of Random’ (Credit: Instagram)

Shopping center sells. Seagrove Property Group has sold a Glendora shopping mall for around $14 million. The buyer was a foreign investor who purchased the 41,7000-square-foot Glendora Commons property through an LLC. Tenants include grocery store Aldi, Guitar Center, and Chick-fil-A. [TRD] 

Supportive housing projects get a boost. L.A. County is in the throes of an affordable housing crisis, but this week it approved $6.5 million in funding for projects in Santa Monica and South L.A. The money will go to LINC Housing Corporation’s planned 50-unit affordable project in South L.A., as well as an eight-unit project in Santa Monica being developed by Community Corporation of Santa Monica. [Urbanize]

Mayor Eric Garcetti and rendering of proposed temporary shelter in Venice

Venice residents sue to stop shelter. The Venice Stakeholders Association sued the city, claiming the proposed 154-bed homeless shelter will attract crime and generate noise. The suit alleges the city has not studied the impact closely enough. The shelter is under construction and is one of dozens that is part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “A Bridge Home” shelter program. [SMDP]

Upstart co-living space

Co-living startup Upstart looks to expand in L.A. with new funding. CEO Jeremiah Adler expects the Hollywood-based firm’s $15 million Series A round to close within six months and fuel an expansion in L.A. up to 1,000 members, along with new locations in West Coast cities. Upstart has five locations in L.A. and is opening a sixth in Mid-City. It is also eyeing Venice. [LABJ]

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

A planned interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve Wednesday would be the first cut since 2008. For developers, and the real estate industry, that means deal will become more profitable, by a drop in borrowing costs. Commercial developers will have an easier time sourcing financing, but the benefits will be most clearly felt by single-family homeowners. [TRD]

CGI Strategies’ plans for a cafe at a Hollywood apartment building is angering locals. The Woodland Hills investor has run the Villa Carlotta as an Airbnb-style operation since local officials shot down its plans to open a hotel there. Now, it wants to add a 1,100-square-foot cafe to the 1926 building’s ground floor, which some locals call another step toward turning the building into a de facto hotel. [Curbed]

Homeownership in Los Angeles and Orange County dropped to near a three-year-low. Around 46 percent of households in the two famously expensive counties own their home, according to second quarter U.S. Census data. That is a 2.3 percent drop from the same period last year, and the second-lowest rate among the country’s 75 largest metro areas, trailing only Fresno. Meanwhile, ownership rates grew by 2.5 percent in the Inland Empire, a possible effect of greater affordability there. [LADN]

Actor Jussie Smollett took a $30,000 loss on the sale of his Studio City home. The embattled former “Empire” actor, currently facing a lawsuit from the city of Chicago over his alleged hate crime hoax earlier this year, sold the 2,600-square-foot home for $1.6 million in an off-market sale. Smollett has been out of the public eye since the alleged hoax was exposed, and is reportedly “camping out in New York.” [Variety]

Kilroy Realty’s One Paseo project in San Diego

A little farther afield…San Diego approves zoning for dense mixed-use housing amid housing crisis. New policies approved Monday are meant to encourage mixed residential and commercial developments in the city’s suburban areas. Developers previously needed special approval for such projects, similar to those needed in housing-strapped Los Angeles. The city is also exploring new inclusionary housing policies and a middle-income housing incentive program for developers. [LAT]

Compiled by Dennis Lynch