An industrial-style live/work loft in a converted warehouse building in L.A.’s still a bit gritty but quickly gentrifying and increasingly spendy downtown Arts District, owned per property records by award-winning veteran film and television producer Richard Sekai, has popped up for sale at exactly $1 million. The 1997 Oscar nominee (“Jerry Maguire”) and eight-time Emmy winner (“The Tracey Ullman Show,” “The Simpsons”) has owned the open-plan top-floor unit for just over a decade, when tax records show it traded at $470,000.
Divided into two multipurpose spaces separated by an open kitchen, the house-sized one-bed/one-bath unit is little more than a huge, concrete box that measures in at a tad more than 1,300 square feet. The front door opens directly into a large area that does unconventional double-duty as an entrance area and sleeping space — a more private bedroom could certainly be created — and the combination living, dining and kitchen area looks out over the rooftops of the surrounding buildings though a gigantic window that starts at the floor and extends almost to the high ceiling. Separating the living/dining area from the bedroom, the clean-lined and well equipped, open-concept kitchen orbits around a small work island, while the plain, generously roomy bathroom just inside the front door and off the bedroom area includes a convenient laundry closet.
The unit is listed with Christiano Sampaio of Loftway and the building, a former furniture warehouse with nearly 300 units, offers residents 24-hour security and, in addition to landscaped courtyard, a rooftop leisure complex complete with fitness center, an outdoor living room with fireplace and a swimming pool and spa with an up-close view of the downtown skyline.
Setai’s extensive property portfolio includes: another downtown loft acquired a decade ago for almost half-a-million dollars; two neighboring residences at the top of Coldwater Canyon in the Beverly Hills Post Office area, the first bought in 1998 for almost $2.2 million and the other in 2012 for $1.6 million; and a three-bedroom, ocean-view contemporary privately tucked away on almost an acre above Malibu’s Broad Beach and recently put up for sale at $4.25 million.