With the 2028 Olympics on the horizon, Los Angeles is racing to reinvent itself. Long-stalled developments are getting new life, old buildings are being reimagined, and entire neighborhoods are undergoing major transformations. This week, one of downtown’s most notorious eyesores officially joined that list. Cleanup crews began work this week on the notorious “graffiti towers,” officially known as Oceanwide Plaza, marking the start of what city officials hope is the beginning of the end for one of downtown’s most infamous buildings.
🏗️ From luxury project to abandoned canvas
Located across from Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center, Oceanwide Plaza has remained unfinished since construction halted in 2019 due to financing issues. What was originally planned as a $1.2 billion luxury residential, hotel, and retail project sat vacant for years, until early 2024, when taggers began covering its towers in graffiti, eventually spreading across at least 27 stories.
🧹 A new buyer, a 90-day deadline
That changed after a bankruptcy court judge approved the $470 million sale of the property this week. The buyer, Riverside County-based developer KPC Group, has committed to removing all graffiti from the towers within 90 days, funding the cleanup themselves. Abatement crews and power-washing trucks were already seen working at the site’s base on Wednesday, as reported by KTLA.
Mayor Karen Bass has tied the project’s completion to the city’s broader downtown revitalization efforts, with a clear eye on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, now just two years away. “Completing this project is about far more than finishing a building”, Bass said in a statement. “It’s about restoring confidence, reconnecting a vital commercial corridor, and unlocking the economic potential of one of the city’s most strategic destinations”.
For downtown residents who’ve watched the towers sit vacant and vandalized for years, the cleanup marks a long-awaited turning point, even if full completion is still a ways off.
