"Occupies", "West Bank", "Settlement" - This Story Has It All

Well, the story has all the terms but it's about property in Los Angeles

SCI-Arc Campus Part of Ten Property Settlement Agreement between Meruelo Maddux and Lender

SCI-Arc occupies a quarter-mile long building rebuilt from L.A.'s original 1907 Santa Fe Rail Freight Terminal.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — SCI-Arc's quarter-mile-long campus is changing hands as one of ten Downtown properties involved in a settlement agreement approved today between bankrupt property owner Meruelo Maddux and one of its largest investors.

Seven properties, including the architecture school's campus and part of the parking lot that neighbors it, will go to Legendary Investors Group under the terms of the agreement. In return, Legendary will release its claims on three other properties in South Park.

The SCI-Arc site should change hands again quickly, however.

The school had reached a deal with Meruelo Maddux to purchase its building and part of the adjacent lot one year ago, but had been unable to move forward on the deal while the bankruptcy case continued. Legendary has told the court that it will honor the terms of the agreement, under which the school will pay $23.1 million for 4.75 acres and its 100,000-square-foot building.

“The purchase of our building is an essential step in the development of the school," SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss said in a statement given to blogdowntown. "It also affirms SCI-Arc’s commitment to downtown Los Angeles."

The school expects to close escrow on the sale by May 1, 2011.

The lot next to SCI-Arc is the most prized of the properties included in the deal. The 7.9-acre site, which Meruelo Maddux called the "Sky-Arc" property, is entitled for 635 residential units and is valued between $28 and $29 million.

Also included are 0.5 acres at 3rd & Omar, 0.6 acres at 420 Boyd, two acres at Griffith and 16th, 1.3 acres at Hewitt and 4th and 125,000 square feet at 6th and Gladys.

In exchange, Legendary has agreed to release its liens on 425 W. 11th, the five-story Desmonds building at 11th and Hope; 336 W. 11th, a 0.7-acre parking lot at 11th and Olive; and property on both sides of Olive between 11th and 12th that contains J's Lounge and a parking lot.

Legendary had acquired the Meruelo Maddux loans from their original issuer, East West Bank.

A representative of Meruelo Maddux declined comment on today's settlement. On Thursday, the company will return to court to try and get approval for its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

You never know.

^