A broke Chinese real estate developer left Los Angeles with empty, graffiti-covered towers and a billion-dollar bill

Sun, 02/18/2024 - 18:08

27 Floors Of Unfinished L.A. Luxury Skyscraper Tagged With Graffiti — An aerial view of graffiti spray painted by taggers on at least 27 stories of an unfinished skyscraper development located in Downtown Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

A Chinese firm started to build a massive tower plaza in Los Angeles but ran out of funds in 2019.
The Oceanwide Plaza towers are now mainly used by graffiti artists and base jumpers.
LA's City Council estimates it'll take $2 billion to buy the property and complete the project.

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday agreed to spend $3.8 million to fence and begin cleaning up an abandoned real estate project that has been mainly used by graffiti artists and base jumpers since a Chinese development firm abandoned the build in 2019.