Developers Turn Old Office Building Into High-End Lofts In Elysian Park

ELYSIAN PARK (CBSLA.com) — Developers have turned the old Metropolitan Water District headquarters in Elysian Park into high-end apartments.

The Elysian, 96 lofts at 1115 W. Sunset Blvd., was the brainchild of Linear City Development's Yuval Bar-Zemer and Leonard Hill.

The duo, who spearheaded success in downtown's Arts District, bought the vacant, fenced MWD building a few years ago. It was originally built by iconic L.A. architect William Pereira, the man behind San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid and the famous LAX Theme Building.

"People have driven by this building for 50 years," Hill said. "For 20 of it, it has been vacant. People have wondered what's happening here. We like to operate on the frontiers of opportunity to find neighborhoods that have been blighted and overlooked and bring them back to life."

Hill's hope is that the luxury living spaces, which range from $1,500 to $6,000 a month, will change the landscape of Sunset.

"This stretch of Sunset hopefully will be transformed with this being the spark that will light a whole fire of development," he said.

Hill said Elysian Park, which is near recently revitalized areas of Echo Park and Silver Lake, "will be the missing link in the chain that joins those neighborhoods to downtown."

Residents like Hazel Alamares welcome that idea.

"It's going to probably make it more beautiful, more appealing, more appealing to live," she said.