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One morning in late December 2023, Downtown Los Angeles looked up at the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza towers and noticed something was different. What had been three quiet, abandoned skyscrapers suddenly displayed enormous graffiti stretching across dozens of floors. Within weeks, more graffiti crews followed, eventually covering nearly every side of the vacant towers. BASE jumpers, urban explorers, and social media influencers soon turned the property into an international spectacle, while what was once envisioned as Downtown’s most luxurious development became known around the world as the “Graffiti Towers.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, that chapter is finally coming to an end. On July 20, 2026, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the liquidation plan clearing the way for Oceanwide Plaza’s sale to a partnership led by KPC Development and Lendlease. Graffiti removal is expected to begin immediately, followed by construction on the long-stalled project.
When construction began in 2015, Oceanwide Plaza was expected to become one of the most significant private developments in Downtown Los Angeles. Developed by Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings, the $1.2 billion project was planned to include three towers with 504 luxury residences, a five-star Park Hyatt hotel, more than 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, and a massive LED media display across the podium. Located directly across from Crypto.com Arena, L.A. Live, and the Los Angeles Convention Center, the development was intended to anchor the future of South Park.
That vision came to an abrupt halt in 2019 when Oceanwide Holdings ran out of financing after investing more than $1.2 billion into the project. Construction stopped with the development roughly 60% complete, leaving three unfinished towers looming over Downtown for years.
The vandalism that began in late December 2023 quickly escalated throughout January and February 2024 as dozens of graffiti crews broke into the unsecured buildings. According to city records, Los Angeles officials declared the property a public nuisance, issued an abatement order on January 31, 2024, erected taller security fencing, increased police patrols, and approved millions of dollars for security and emergency site stabilization. More than 30 trespassers were arrested as officers attempted to stop the illegal activity, while the city sought to recover its costs from the property’s owner.
Now, after years of uncertainty, the future appears much brighter. According to the Office of Mayor Karen Bass, the new ownership team has committed to removing all graffiti within approximately three months, securing the property, and restarting construction. The project is being acquired by KPC Development, led by Kali P. Chaudhuri, together with Lendlease, the original general contractor. The partnership agreed to acquire Oceanwide Plaza for approximately $470 million and estimates it will invest hundreds of millions more to complete the development.
If completed as planned, Oceanwide Plaza will finally deliver the vision first announced more than a decade ago: hundreds of luxury residences, a five-star hotel, restaurants, retail, and new public spaces in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. More importantly, the completion of the project would erase one of the city’s most visible symbols of stalled development just as Los Angeles prepares to host the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, and 2028 Olympic Games. After years as an unfinished reminder of what went wrong, Oceanwide Plaza may finally become a symbol of Downtown’s next chapter.
