Los Angeles Real Estate Report

Key Takeaways

• →The Wilshire Corridor's super luxury high rises rose mostly in the 1980s and 90s, offering a full service life Los Angeles had never had before
• →The La Tour, built in the 1980s, has kept the same management for 40 years and has retained its reputation as the premier high rise on the corridor
• →The full service mile is about one mile of doorman and valet buildings, beginning near the Wilshire Country Club
• →Beverly Hills has only about five full service buildings and they are not high rises; the density of full service living is on the Wilshire Corridor
• →La Tour units are all corner units, only four per floor; unit 902 is a northeastern corner at a little over 3,100 square feet and was once Frankie Valli's home
• →The location is the shortest jaunt to Century City, an easy 5 to 10 minute drive to the beach, and walking distance to UCLA and Westwood Village
• →Buyers here are empty nesters from the hills and Malibu, plus transplants from New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami who want the high rise life they are accustomed to

Inside the La Tour at 10380 Wilshire and the Wilshire Corridor, Westwood, Los Angeles

Why Did Los Angeles Build Its Luxury High Rises on the Wilshire Corridor?

The Wilshire Corridor really began in the 1970s, and more of the development happened in the 80s than any other decade. These super luxury buildings popped up and offered people a different kind of life in Los Angeles that we had never really had before: all amenities and lifestyle driven, with doorman, valet, outside management, and all of the frills.

Why here? Because the location is so desirable, of course. It is the shortest jaunt to Century City, an easy 5 to 10 minute drive to the beach depending on the time of day, walking distance to UCLA and Westwood Village, and Beverly Hills is just on the other side. The corridor has such a density of high rises because it is so convenient to so many of the wonderful things Los Angeles has to offer.

The corridor is also the full service mile: about a mile of buildings that begins just at the Wilshire Country Club. There are very few full service buildings outside of the Wilshire Corridor. You would think there would be many in Beverly Hills, and there are about five, and they are not high rises. A couple sit in West Hollywood, a couple downtown, but this is really it. This is where people come for that service, for that level of luxury living in the sky.

What Does Lock and Leave Living Actually Mean?

It means people scaling down and people scaling up. It means a location with no maintenance: no grass, no hedges, no foundations, none of the things that come with a single family home. You simply write that check every month to the HOA and let all those cares float away.

So many people who move here are empty nesters downsizing from very large single family homes in the hills or in Malibu. They come for the simplicity, the lock and leave culture, where they spend a couple of months a year in the south of France, come back for a few months, then leave again for another wonderful destination. Others come from New York, or from a high rise in Chicago or San Francisco or Miami, where this type of luxury living is what they are accustomed to. They come here and they want the same.

An honest word about costs: whether you are spending it on a single family house or writing the check at the HOA, all of those costs are up. There is zero question about that, no sugarcoating it. We are in a time of volatility in HOAs, insurance, earthquake insurance especially, staffing, and workers' comp. This is where a really well managed and well run organization begins to pay off, and the La Tour has had the same great management for 40 years. And yet the lifestyle it affords you is superlative. There is so much more to it than the sum of the parts: safety, security, location, views, all of the things that come together in a building like this.

What Can You See From a North Facing Unit at the La Tour?

The thing that is really amazing, the thing people watching cannot see, is what we can see. Unit 902 is north facing across Wilshire, so you are seeing the best of the Hollywood Hills and looking at the Santa Monica Mountains. At night it is so lovely: all of these old twinkling lights, all of the houses lit up, soft, and there is something romantic about it.

You are not expecting the trees, and it is so green. You look out over the golf course and the old Spelling Mansion. You are looking out at a slice of life of Los Angeles, California. You could sit here with your cocktail or your glass of wine in hand, look out the window and think: what is happening in that house, in that part of the hill? Who are those people in the foreground? It is a lovely place to spend an afternoon and watch the light change and the color change as the day goes on.

What We Learned Inside Frankie Valli's Former Unit at the La Tour

This particular unit is one we sold to our clients just a few years ago, and they have taken beautiful care of it. Before our clients, this was Frankie Valli's unit. Our clients are real music aficionados, so they were so excited to be able to pick this up from Frankie Valli at the time.

Unit 902 is a little over 3,100 square feet, a northeastern corner unit. One of the things we love about the La Tour is that every home is a corner unit, only four per floor. What we learned walking these rooms is that the windows are the story: they are designed like none we have ever seen in any other condo building, creating vignettes, little areas of extra space that feel like they have bumped out from the main rooms. In the primary bedroom the windows give you a niche for a writing desk and another little lounge area just to sit and enjoy.

There are two balconies here, and they are not little Juliet balconies. They are large and usable: our client used one as his painting area, out there over the corridor with the hills in front of him. The bedroom is sumptuous, as are the baths. It is a special offering, and we think someone is going to be pleased to call this home very soon.

Chuck Marquardt’s Perspective

“I'm so excited to be here at the La Tour at 10380 Wilshire. What I really want to talk about is the Wilshire Corridor in general, what it means and what the lifestyle is, because it's exciting and it's vibrant and it's a place that people come for many reasons, and a place where a lot of people find themselves at various stages of their life.”

The Wilshire Corridor at a Glance

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