The most conspicuous symbol of downtown Los Angeles's troubles is finally getting cleaned up. Work has begun to strip the graffiti from Oceanwide Plaza, the abandoned three-tower complex across from the arena, ABC7 reports.
How it got this way
Oceanwide Plaza was conceived as a luxury residential and hotel development and then stalled, its three unfinished high-rises left standing empty for years after the original developer ran out of money. In early 2024 the towers were overrun by graffiti artists, who tagged dozens of floors in a spree that drew international attention, and then by thrill-seekers who turned the derelict skyscrapers into a stage for tightrope walks and parachute jumps.
The result was a landmark of a kind no city wants: three empty towers, visible from the freeway and the arena, covered in spray paint, standing for stalled ambition in the heart of downtown.
What is happening now
The complex has new owners. A partnership that includes KPC Development bought Oceanwide Plaza for $517 million and says it plans to invest hundreds of millions more to finish what was started.
The immediate, visible change is the graffiti. "The graffiti will be completely removed from Oceanwide Plaza," said John Petty of KPC Development, who put the timeline at roughly three months. Petty also pushed back on the assumption that the buildings are a loss: "It actually is much better than it looks from the outside, and a lot of it is salvageable." Fencing, barbed wire and 24-hour security patrols are now in place, an attempt to keep out the taggers and jumpers who treated the open towers as an invitation.
What it means for downtown
For the neighborhood, the news landed as relief. "We're ecstatic that something is happening," said Debra Shrout of the South Park Neighborhood Association, a plain summary of how long residents have looked at those towers with no sign of movement. Nella McOsker of the Central City Association framed the restart in bigger terms, calling it "a symbol of recovery" that "sends a different message" about the direction of downtown.
That is the real significance here, beyond one building. Oceanwide Plaza became shorthand for a downtown struggling with vacancy and disinvestment, and restarting it is as much a message as a construction project.
The honest caveats
Two of them are worth stating. The occupancy target is the end of 2028, which means the towers will not be finished, or presentable, in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics that Los Angeles is hosting, an obvious missed opportunity given their location near the Games' downtown footprint. And announcements of revival at Oceanwide Plaza have a history: the building stalled once already, and a purchase and a plan are not the same as a finished tower.
Still, after years of paralysis, the sequence has changed from "nothing" to "something," with a named owner, a price paid, and crews starting on the most visible problem. The Herald will follow whether the graffiti comes off on schedule, and whether the far harder work of actually completing the towers follows.
