Los Angeles Touring

New York-based Tishman Speyer will list its The Brickyard and The Collective at Playa Vista campuses in Playa Vista, likely next week, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The properties are expected to fetch more than $600 million. Tishman Speyer declined to comment.

Eastdil Secured has the listings.

The Real Deal first reported the news.

The Brickyard, at 12105 and 12126 W. Waterfront Dr. is a 425,300-square-foot campus with creative office space and retail.

Collective, located at 12005, 12015, 11975, 11985 and 11995 West Bluff Creek Dr. is a 204,422-square-foot campus with five buildings.

Tenants in the Silicon Beach neighborhood include Facebook, which recently signed a lease to increase its footprint in the area.

Earlier this month, the Business Journal reported that Tishman Speyer had a deal in the works to sell the Wilshire Courtyard, a 1-million-square-foot complex in Miracle Mile, to Onni Group for roughly $630 million.

Tishman Speyer’s properties include the Rockefeller Center and Yankee Stadium in New York and 555 Mission St. in San Francisco.

Commercial real estate reporter Hannah Madans can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @HannahMadans

Irvine-based Syntiant, which is developing semiconductor used for edge computing, raised $25M in its Series B funding. The funding came from Sunstone Venture Capital Fund, along with Seraph Group, plus Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, Robert Bosch, Applied Materials, and Motorola, according to the company. Sunstone was an investor in its Series A funding. The company says it is developing technology which allows for embedding machine learning capabilities in edge devices like smart phones, watches, speakers, and other devices. More information »

When Brandon Ingram and Rajon Rondo missed three games due to a suspension in late October, the Lakers went 2-1, while Rondo returned for a loss at San Antonio on Oct. 29 that served as the fourth game of Ingram’s suspension.

And with Ingram (sprained left ankle) and Rondo (broken right hand) both out of the last three games, L.A. have gone 2-1 once again.

After Wednesday’s practice at the UCLA Health Center, and just before the team took off on a flight to Houston for the first of a four-game road trip, Luke Walton said that Ingram won’t be on the trip … at least to start.

“B.I. is not coming, no,” said Walton. “He’ll be re-evaluated on Saturday, so we’re not going to travel him with the swelling and what not.”

When asked if Ingram could possibly join the team on the trip – L.A. is at Washington on Sunday and at Brooklyn on Tuesday – at some point, Walton said the team would make that decision after the evaluation on Saturday.

“A lot of that is up to the medical staff,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Rajon Rondo is set to meet with the hand specialist with whom he’s been working on Thursday.

“We’ll go from there depending on what (the doctor) says,” he said. “If it’s a good appointment and he’s cleared to start doing stuff again, then there’s a chance he meets us out on the road.”

Rondo fractured the third metacarpal on his right hand against Portland on Nov. 14, and was given a 4-5 week timeline on Nov. 15, when he had successful surgery to repair the fracture.

Walton has had his team ready to play despite the injuries to two key rotation players, as the Lakers have won 6 of 7 games since a 117-85 loss at Denver on Nov. 27 in which Lonzo Ball wasn’t able to play in the second half due to a sprained ankle.

They’re a season best seven games over .500 at 17-10, good for the No. 4 spot of the Western Conference, just 1.5 games back of first. L.A. is 11-4 at home and 6-6 on the road, as well as 12-7 in the West and 3-0 in the Pacific Division.

“I felt our team moving in the right direction before that (loss at Denver),” said Walton.

To his point, L.A. is 15-5 since starting the season 2-5, and Walton and his coaching staff deserve credit for pushing the defensive improvement that has the team ranked 9th on the season (106.3) when they were just 21st after nine games. Since that 9th game on Nov. 3 at Portland (a 114-110 win), L.A. rank 4th in the NBA in defensive efficiency (103.7)

Walton credited the players.

“They’re taking ownership in what we do,” he said. “It’s up to the players to really step up and get that done, and I think they do that.”

As the pace has slowed a bit – they still rank 4th on the season (103.82) – the offensive efficiency has dipped as well from early in the season when they were flying up and down the court. They’re still, if narrowly, in the top half of the league in offense (14th) and rank 9th in net rating (2.3).

Having LeBron James on the court in crunch time, and the improved all-around play of Kyle Kuzma have been keys, but in short, L.A. are finding ways to win.

“Every season takes on its own life, its own form,” Walton concluded. “What you think is going to happen never happens. Groups change, and that’s where we’re at now. There will be more changes before the end of the season … that’s why we’re always open and looking for different ways for our team to succeed, and we’ll continue to find those.”

Thursday’s game against Houston is the first meeting since the 2nd game of the season, from which Ingram and Rondo – as well as Chris Paul – drew their suspensions, but only CP3 will be on the court.

Source: https://www.nba.com/lakers/news/181212-ingram-rondo-remain-out-resurgent-lakers-begin-4-game-trip

Full disclosure: this transaction actually closed eons ago (way, way back in February 2017) but we’re only writing about it now because Yolanda had no idea who bought the property until just the other day. And being that this is among the largest — and certainly one of the most expensive — undeveloped estate sites in the Platinum Triangle, it’s still a worthwhile story.

Before we get into the buyer and their intentions for the property, here’s a wee bit of history.

In November 2008, Platinum Equity billionaire (and Detroit Pistons owner) Tom Gores paid $18,000,000 for a mansion in prime lower Bel Air. The following January (2009), as was first reported by the folks at the now-defunct Berg Properties blog, he paid a pompous $38,000,000 to businessman Carl Parmer for the larger manse immediately next door. For all you non-math majors, that’s a $56 million splurge.

And in typical billionaire fashion, Mr. Gores quickly knocked the smaller house down and poured millions into an extensive renovation and expansion of the larger one.

But then Mr. Gores did something curious. In early 2014, midway through the project, he had a change of heart — or whatever — and put the entire (unfinished) spread up for sale with a $50 million pricetag.

The property did not sell. So Mr. Gores began marketing the 3.13-acre site as one of LA’s premiere teardown estate lots. Which it is, of course.

Eventually, in October 2016, the land was sold for exactly $30 million to prominent developers Gala Asher and Ed Berman as part of a complicated asset swap that Yolanda won’t get into here. But anyway, that’s a huge loss for Mr. Gores — just $30 million for a property that he surely dumped well over $60 million into! Ouch. Although a good tax man could probably turn that mega-loss into a boon, right?

Mr. Asher and Mr. Berman held onto the estate for just four months before lucratively flipping it to an entity called “La Croix LLC”. The sale price? $35,450,000. A couple folks asked Yolanda who the buyer was, but we couldn’t figure it out. Eventually we gave up.

Fast forward to a few days ago. One of our cohorts asked whether we knew what was goin’ on with the property, so Yolanda took another peek Lo and behold, records now clearly show that the $35+ million buyers were a young married couple named Brandon Beck and Natasha (nee Fagel) Beck.

Mr. and Mrs. Beck grew up well-off in Beverly Hills — his parents have long owned a mansion in the Flats, hers have a snazzy spread up in Trousdale Estates. Both homes are worth more than $10 million today.

The Becks — now in their mid-30s — both graduated from USC before they were married in a lavish 2009 ceremony at the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel (check out that ice bar. Holy cow!). Nowadays they have at least a couple munchkins of their own, we think.

Anywho, Mr. Beck — known to his fans as Ryze — is co-Chairman of Riot Games, which he co-founded with his USC roommate (and fellow real estate baller) Marc Merrill. Riot is best-known for its wildly popular League of Legends video game franchise.

In 2015, Riot was completely bought out by Chinese conglomerate Tencent. That acquisition has obviously made Mr. Beck and Mr. Merrill — both of whom are still actively involved with Riot — very wealthy men. At least one website says the still-young Mr. Beck sports a net worth of $200 million. Good for him, although Riot’s marriage to Tencent has reportedly not been the happiest of unions.

But we digress. Back to the real estate issue at hand.

While we have no idea what the Becks are planning for their huge swath of Bel Air land, Yolanda guesses they will build some sort of extravagant familial compound to put all but the largest LA mega-mansions to shame. Some of the nearest Bel Air neighbors include Gary Winnick’s $94 million Casa Encantada and the $35 million home of Robert Blumenfield.

The Beck estate site is also but a short walk to the uber-prestigious Bel-Air Country Club, where the initiation fee will run you $150,000 and all members must adhere to a very strict dress code. Gentlemen may not wear shorts — long pants only, y’all — or the country club cops will slap them silly.

While Mr. and Mrs. Beck await their new dream residence, they bunk up in a nearby “crash pad”.

Situated on Brentwood’s premier hillside street, the giant Traditional-style mansion weighs in with 15,600-square-feet of living space. Records show that the Becks paid Michael Strahan a mighty $21,500,000 for the property back in 2015. That was a good deal for Mr. Strahan — he bought the spec-manse for just $16 million and made no major changes during his one year of ownership.

Some of the Becks’ Brentwood neighbors within sugar-borrowing distance include cosmetics queen Jamie Kern Lima, Lakers co-owner Jesse Buss and “King” LeBron James.

New financial tools have come to market that will help boost your score

Here’s some good news for anyone whose credit scores aren’t quite as high as they’d like them to be: Three new financial tools have come to market — or soon will be available — that could give your scores a shot of adrenalin when you need it most.

These aren’t “credit repair” rip-offs, where you shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars to sleazeball companies. Far from it. All three tools come from well-established players: FICO, developer of the ubiquitous FICO score; Experian, one of the national credit bureaus; and CreditXpert, a financial-technology company whose products are used extensively in the mortgage arena.

Now completing its pilot-test phase, FICO’s “Ultra” score is expected to be widely available from lenders this summer. It raises scores by importing data from your checking, banking, savings and money-market accounts into your credit report when calculating your score. If you have some savings, maintain your bank accounts over time, and avoid negative balances, it’s likely you’ll get a higher score. Seven out of 10 consumers who exhibit good banking and savings behavior should see increased scores using Ultra, according to FICO. (FICO scores range from 300 to 850; the lower the score, the greater the risk of future default.)

Experian’s new “Boost” option, introduced in March and now becoming available nationwide, offers another score-enhancement approach. It imports your on-time utilities and telecom payments and includes positive data into your score calculations, raising scores in the majority of cases. The lower your starting score, the bigger the improvement. According to Experian, three-quarters of consumers with scores below 680 saw an increase in their scores from Boost. Jeff Softley, chief marketing and revenue officer for Experian Consumer Services, told me he got a 28-point bump to his own scores.

“Wayfinder” from CreditXpert is different. Working with their loan officer, borrowers select a target credit score they’d like to achieve to qualify for a loan or get the best interest rate and terms possible. The Wayfinder software then runs dozens of scenarios to get the borrower that score within a designated time period by taking steps to modify accounts in their credit reports. Say you have a 640 score but need at least a 680 to get an interest rate lower than you’ve been quoted. Your loan officer plugs your 680 target into the software and the program delivers specific steps you can take to achieve that score within days or weeks. Plans might call for a partial paydown of one or more accounts that are needlessly depressing your current score. But since you may not want to spend the money, Wayfinder offers alternatives that won’t cost as much but might take a month or more to complete. Score improvements average around 27 to 30 points, but have ranged as high as 179 points, according to CreditXpert’s managing director, David Chung.

All three of these tools could be of practical use to you if you find yourself in a score pinch. You simply need to ask your loan officer about them. But UltraFICO and Boost come with a crucial handicap for anyone seeking a home mortgage: Under current regulatory restrictions, the two biggest sources of mortgage money cannot accept the FICO scores they produce. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both confirmed to me that at least for the time being, their underwriting systems don’t permit either UltraFICO or Boost. Both can be used for most other credit purposes using Experian credit reports, such as applying for credit cards or auto loans, but not for mortgages destined for purchase by Fannie or Freddie.

Wayfinder, by contrast, is designed for the mortgage market. The higher scores it leads to are acceptable because they reflect credit report changes that can be incorporated into scoring models that Fannie and Freddie have used for years. So if you’re shopping for a mortgage and need a higher score, Wayfinder is worth checking out with your loan officer.

Another key fact you should know about Wayfinder: It’s not free. It costs around $15 to $18 if you want to run it on your files at each of the big three credit bureaus. Plus it typically involves “rapid rescoring” of your credit reports by a vendor working with your loan officer, and that can cost another $75 to $150. But if the process lands you a loan that costs thousands of dollars less over the years, the small upfront expense should be worth it.

Take us to church, Harry Gesner. In 1997, Malibu’s maverick modern architect designed this home in Las Flores Canyon that features a grand central living area evoking Lloyd Wright’s sublime glass church, Wayfarers Chapel.

At the home, dubbed “Ravenseye,” walls of glass three stories tall are inset with a towering trio of wood-framed gothic arches. The glass affords sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean—it’s like Gesner, an avid surfer, is daring you not to worship the sea.

The dramatic, airy great room is also outfitted with a fireplace, slate mosaic floors, and 25-foot vaulted, wood beam ceilings. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom Malibu home blends rustic and contemporary elements. It was built on a one-acre lot, and the property holds a pool and spa and multiple patios and decks with impressive views of the surrounding hillsides.

Refurbished since it last sold in 2008 for $3.895 million, it’s now on the market for $14 million. Listing agent Dustin Nicholas says a 1957 Airstream trailer is included with sale.

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed veteran center Tyson Chandler, the team announced Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not released by the Lakers.

Chandler became a free agent after receiving a buyout from the Phoenix Suns and was free to sign with any team after clearing waivers. The Lakers were expected to sign Chandler, who will add some much-needed depth to the team's group of centers.

Chandler moves to the Lakers after playing in Phoenix for the past four seasons. Los Angeles is the center's seventh franchise in 18 career seasons. Chandler was named an All-Star with the New York Knicks in 2012-13 and won an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2010-11.

During a bench role with the Suns this year, Chandler averaged 3.7 points per game in 12.7 minutes.