Downtown LA's notorious graffiti towers reach cleanup milestone

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- After an extensive, months-long cleanup process, the "graffiti towers" in downtown Los Angeles are finally shedding their infamous image.

Much of the graffiti that covered the Oceanwide Plaza skyscrapers near Crypto.com Arena is gone. It's a major step toward bringing the long-stalled project back to life.

City officials say with the progress that has been made on cleaning up the towers, they're hoping that there's a good chance the entire project could be done in time for the 2028 Olympics.

"To me, it was a symbol of the curse I sought to break in this district," L.A. City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said Thursday during a press conference held near the skyscrapers. "When I came into office I made this a priority."

"It's a new dawn, it's a new day, and I'm feeling really good," Jurado added.

Dr. Kali Chaudhuri, chairman and founder of the KPC Group, is helping lead the revival. His group, along with Australian partner Lendlease, acquired the property through a bankruptcy deal approved in July. Now the focus shifts from cleaning up the towers to finishing them.

"We have to make it glorious, not notorious," Chaudhuri said.

But there's still a major hurdle. Chaudhuri says numerous expired city permits must be renewed before critical construction can move forward. He called it time-consuming.

The developers plan to pour an estimated $850 million into the project - transforming the towers into more than 500 residential units, a 180-room luxury hotel, restaurants, retail space and swimming pools.

"We have a shared goal and commitment to work toward completing this by the Olympics," Jurado said. "It's a priority of our office."

Jurado is pledging to help cut through the red tape in that effort.

"I'm allergic to inefficiency and bureaucracy, and that's what government is all the time," Jurado said. "Breaking through the bureaucracy to get the results, we got this far faster than we ever thought we were going to and so we're committed to a partnership to ensure that our office tries to get those obstacles out of the way."