Graffiti is mostly gone from the Oceanwide Plaza towers downtown
Crews have removed most graffiti from the Oceanwide Plaza towers. The new owners plan 504 homes, a hotel and retail, with occupancy expected by late 2028.
By LA This Weekend Team · November 11, 20261 view
Most of the graffiti is gone from the Oceanwide Plaza towers in downtown Los Angeles, the unfinished complex many Angelenos call the Graffiti Towers. ABC7 and FOX 11 reported this week that the city has confirmed the sale of the property and that cleanup is well along. The new owners say they plan to finish a project that has been stalled since 2019.
KPC Development and Lendlease bought the complex, according to ABC7. The two companies plan to invest about $850 million to finish the project, which they say is about 60% complete. When it is done, it will include 504 residential units, a luxury hotel and retail space. The new owners expect the buildings to be occupied by late 2028, and major exterior work is targeted for completion before the 2028 Olympics, ABC7 reported.
The purchase price is reported differently. ABC7 said KPC Development and Lendlease bought the complex at auction for $517 million. The Los Angeles Business Journal described a bankruptcy bid of about $470 million, mostly credit bid, and said a federal judge approved the sale in July. Both outlets say a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved the sale.
What to know
- Oceanwide Plaza's towers topped out in March 2018. Lendlease demobilized most of its subcontractors by January 2019, and the project stopped, the Business Journal reported.
- In early 2024, taggers and base jumpers broke into the empty towers. The Los Angeles City Council called the project a blight in a 2024 resolution and voted to spend nearly $4 million to remove graffiti and secure the site, the Business Journal reported.
- KPC Group finished removing exterior graffiti from 250 balconies on Oct. 20, meeting a 90-day deadline the city set in July. Windows between the balconies took longer, the Business Journal reported.
- Interior graffiti is still on some walls and in the parking garage. KPC's John Petty told the Business Journal that interior graffiti is "not a high priority" and will likely disappear under drywall once construction resumes.
- The purchase must close by Jan. 22, according to the court's confirmation order. KPC still needs a construction loan, a construction contract and approved permits, the Business Journal reported.
- A joint press conference was planned for Thursday with Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, KPC Group and other stakeholders, FOX 11 reported.
What residents want next
The cleanup has changed how the site looks from the street, and some downtown residents say it has already lifted the mood. Teresa Y. Hillery, a downtown resident and founding board member of the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Association, told FOX 11, "It's super clean." She said the cleanup "means a lot to the downtown community and the overall economic recovery and viability of this community."
Residents also said cleaning up is only the first step. Hillery listed the next needs as "the streets, the sidewalks being fixed, we need trees, we need lighting." Her colleague Farah Bowers said she hopes the new mayor and council will act on long-standing requests from residents, according to FOX 11.
The city has a stake in the outcome. Mayor Karen Bass said in July that finishing the project was "about far more than finishing a building," according to the Business Journal, pointing to restoring confidence and reconnecting a commercial corridor.
Opinions on the change are mixed. Some residents said they love that the site has been cleaned up. Others said the towers had become a symbol of the city and should have been left alone, ABC7 reported.
Our take
For people who walk past the site every day, the change is visible right away. The bigger question is whether the plan gets built. The purchase depends on financing, a construction contract and permits, and the court has set a January deadline. Plenty of stalled projects have looked close before. What would you most like to see in the finished building: housing, the hotel, or the shops and restaurants?
Sources
- ABC7 Los Angeles: Infamous graffiti towers in downtown Los Angeles cleaned up
- FOX 11 Los Angeles: Downtown LA sees new hope as 'Graffiti Towers' cleaned up, historic landmark preps to reopen
- Los Angeles Business Journal: Cleaning Up Oceanwide
File photo: Graffiti on the Oceanwide Plaza towers, taken July 2026, by Alexis Doine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
What do you think? Tell us in the comments below, or post about it on the community board.
LA This Weekend Team