Living at Americana: Life above the Cheesecake Factory

Diversion: Worthwhile feature in today's paper by columnist Chris Erskine about what it's like to spend a night in the apartments above Rick Caruso's new Americana at Grand complex in Glendale. In other words, what it's like to live upstairs from the Cheesecake Factory.

Highlights: "This $400-million development isn't Greenwich Village, to be sure, Jackson Square or even Lincoln Park. Yet, Caruso's latest vision helps give L.A. the thing that everyone says is most missing: somewhere to share an evening."
More: "The new development is four city blocks. In addition to the shops and restaurants, four distinct rental apartment buildings -- almost like anchor stores -- offer floor plans ranging from lofts at $2,060 to town houses (topping $5,000). In all, there are 238 apartments. ... The Americana also boasts 100 condos, starting at $700,000 and reaching as high as $2 million. As of this month, 20% of the apartments had been rented. The condos just went on sale and figures aren't available, though the Americana says it is delighted with the initial response."

Drawbacks? Uh-huh. Live music floating up from the shopping mall until 10 p.m. No place to grab breakfast if you are an early riser. But, Erskine kinda liked it: "It's hard to be too critical of this wager on a more interesting and congenial L.A. lifestyle. It all seems so earnest, so well-intentioned. And certainly, such retail-housing combos are a trend we'll see more of soon, here and across the country."

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo: Americana residents Fred and Jan Cuevas. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Cal]

I can understand retail/living combos where the retail is corner groceries and place where people need things to live day to day. I don't understand high end retail + living combos. If you dont have a lot of high wealth high consumption people living there then living there seems pointless.

[Stanley]

drawbacks: it's in Glendale! no offense to Glendale, grew up nearby, but can't imagine many Glendale locals going for the price tag nor west side residents moving out there at those prices.
with retail and residental vacancies soaring, and r/e prices falling, i doubt they will never be able to fill all the units unless they discount aggressively.

[E]

I live in a Condo-tel (rent) above a Whole Foods in Seattle.

People in our complex look quite healthy.

If I lived above a Cheesecake Factory can I expect to have a big fat neck and an extra chin like the guy in the picture?

[Rob Dawg]

When developers don't talk about condo pre-sales there's a reason.

[HulaGirl]

Bleccchhh. Plain vanilla. The photo of the recession-proofed, air-brushed couple says it all.

Never liked the Grove. More faux California in a consumers paradise. No more home equity to shop with. See how long this lasts.

The good news? You won't have to drive the Hummer to shop,

[RZ]

Um, how can such high prices and general glitz be described as "earnest"?

[HulaGirl]

Oooops. Forgot photo caption:

"You paid how much for your condo?!!"

[jean]

I know there's a lot of Caruso and Americana bashing all around, but as a 20-something Glendale resident (female), I dream about living in the Americana complex.... but I can't afford it. And not only do I know that I can't afford to live there now, I know that I can't live anywhere in the near future where monthly rent is $2k/month. I work for non-profit and all my paychecks in a month (my part-time income included) don't add up to $2k every month. Yes, it's contrived-- ("Welcome to Faux-Cal," is what I saw in the print edition-- but I love Glendale and its proximity to everywhere else except the beach (and Culver City). I wish I could afford to live there.

[sfvrealestate]

I was stunned at Erskine's glowing advertisem...uh, article about Disneyla..uh, Americana in the LAT today. I sell properties over there, have gone to Americana twice, and disagree with a lot of what was written. But, hey, I hope this hot-n-heavy valentine to Rick Caruso nets the LAT lots and lots of Caruso-paid ads. Editorial support of one of your major advertisers was the point of this, right?

[puckhead]

I actually visted the Americana mall a few weekends ago. Nice place to visit on a Saturday night with the family. Live music, big lawn and a playground for the kids. Worth the visit, but to pay premium rent $ to live in a mall????? I don't know...................

[Uncle Billy Went to Washington]

A number of troubling issues here.

1) E, that wasn't called for. That's my dad in the photo and he had the 2nd chin surgically removed. And it's a natural tan.

2) The park. I read earlier that the city required them to provide a public park as part of the deal. Then we hear about Caruso's private army patrolling the "public" park.

3) Cal brought back some memories. In college I used to think about how cool it would be to live above a little market or restaurant like in europe. You can poke your head out the window and yell to your buddy in the morning as he walks to work, or whistle at the pretty girl.

4) Risk... how much risk did they assume in building this thing? How much downside will they have when it goes kerplooie in the downturn? Was it *our* money again somehow that built this puppy? Let's look at the financing. Pete? Any way to find out where all the money came from?

[Uncle Billy Went to Washington]

Ooops:

6) "The condos just went on sale and figures aren't available, though the Americana says it is delighted with the initial response."

heeheehahahaheheheeheee.

Go sell your snake oil somewhere else. Oops, sorry offended the advertisers, I would click madly on banners if I didn't already know that *any* press is good press.

[Nick]

I could actually see the market for living around/in a shared commercial and residential development which was nice enough, conceptually-speaking. Music/activity until 10pm wouldn't bother me very much, you get some free shared security and upkeep services, and you're walking distance to a lot of convenient venues.

Like everything else currently, it's way overpriced, and Glendale is not exactly the most desirable central location, but as a general concept it doesn't seem too bad, especially for 20-somethings without kids working in the area. Just my 2c.

[Jazzman]

I wouldn't pay $700k for a condo anywhere let alone Glendale. Has anyone bought one yet? There's some very nicely pointed condo's in Pasadena for the same price that have been sitting completely empty for a year.

[sandiegan]

Looks pretty, clean, safe and, yes, bland.
In other words, exactly what most people seem to want.

Oh, well. Not for me.
You'd have to at least put in a 24 hour tacqueria (non-corporate, please) and a 24 hour coffee house.

It's the least we could ask.

[BottomFisher]

So who's the blond?

[E]

Only suckers buy condos.

Only bigger suckers buy shared commercial/residential condos.

Same old condo headache with a whole different set of potential conflicts of interest.

[sfvrealestate]

Bottom Fisher, I'm the blond. And we're laughing about how much money we're going to make when we can start reselling these. Are you in? Oh, Bartender, another cosmo, please.

[Seattle]

>>And certainly, such retail-housing combos are a trend we'll see more of soon, here and across the country.

First off, this is nothing new, it's called "mixed-use" and it's how other, older cities are laid out... Go look at Prague, Bangkok, Seattle... Anywhere but LA with its 12-lane parking-lot-freeways does this.

I loved living like this in Seattle-- so green during the week I don't care that my Audi only get 14mpg on Sunday :)

[Ace]

The banner ad for the Americana has welcomed me to the LA Land page for weeks... now a fake article about their apartments and hotels?

Anyway, I have been to the outdoor mall twice. There doesn't appear to be any shopping going on at all. Just a bunch of teenagers hanging out. I think the stores are way too upscale for the neighborhood. Time will tell.

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

"The Blonde?" She's his boss.
"The old guy" Looks like Angelo Mozila from that
camera angle.
She was only a six-pack from him being a seven.
The guys all look pretty around closing time.

[desmo]

I know there's a lot of Caruso and Americana bashing all around, but as a 20-something Glendale resident (female), I dream about living in the Americana complex.... but I can't afford it.

That is why there's bashing, a wishful 20-something can't afford it, nor can (or will) anybody else.

[CD]

Yeah, the ads were the same for the live and work downtown LA,.Smiling, young ,wealthy,,, smart arrogant full of life, better than you and me, etc ....900K for a 1800 SQF
loft, yeah, yeah, yeah........700K for a Glendale condo ?
Those are 2004 prices, when builders were kings and you could flip those babies two or three times in a year....The LA Times wants us to drink Kool-aid to pay the salary of the remaining 5 journalists on staff ?
If you want to see a funny video about the assistant treasury secretary go to Calculated risk, it's a good one !
Very reassuring.

[A Scanner Darkly]

$700K for a condo in Glendale is preposterous; One would have to make $150K yr. to pay for it. It's now obvious that the blowback from secret socio-economic eugenical programs, accomplished by using subliminal microwave technology generated from clandestine subterranean lab facilties for purposes of psych-conditioning and indoctrination, is rearing it's head. Science is attempting to structure society in pure bureaucratic form and in doing so has demolished the middle class; either your with the program or your not and those who aren't will be satanically secretly and subliminally brainswashed and sent to a Torrance mobile home park w/ a disability check. It is never more exemplified that in SoCal RE pricing.

[ice weasel]

Prices aside (and they are ridiculous), Glendale isn't a bad place and it actually used to be one of the better, if not minimal, downtowns to walk in socal.

The idea is mixed use is hardly new but it is an especially good one if done right.

That's where this falls flat. Food. Services. Entertainment. Shopping, which is what the vast majority of this complex is, isn't all that mixed. A market that delivered to residents seems to be a no-brainer that the nobrained who put this together missed. But there is a J. Crew.

sigh...

And yes, it's more than ominous that the only actual number quoted was 20% represented as the number of rentals rented. If condo sales are below that, this beast is doomed.

In principle it's not a bad idea. The location isn't too terrible (again, Glendale haters relax). It's just the mix and the price that suck.