Attempts by NBC Los Angeles to reach the parent company, Oceanwide Holdings, through addresses listed on corporate filings and by phone and email were unsuccessful.
In the last news release posted to its website, in 2020, the company distanced itself from disgraced ex-Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar, who was recently sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for public corruption.
Without a company to keep the site secure after the graffiti appeared and the crowds showed up, police have had to step in.
The job has strained police staffing and cost 3,000 hours of personnel time, Chief Michel Moore told reporters this week. Eighteen people have been arrested there since Feb. 1 on suspicion of various offenses, including trespassing and felony vandalism.
The police department has had to call in officers on overtime and add more patrols to the area, he said. Police cars were parked on every corner of the abandoned project Wednesday afternoon as several officers on horseback trotted on the sidewalks and nearby parking lots.
The City Council will consider a motion next week to spend $3 million to install a fence around the buildings, clear debris and possibly hire private security guards to take the load off the police department.
Meanwhile, the graffiti towers continue to draw visitors.
“I think it’s dope,” said Sacramento resident Latasha Cooper, who was in Los Angeles with her fiancé to visit his family.
The couple recently returned from a road trip to the Mexican state of Baja California, where they passed many abandoned real estate projects dotting Highway 1.
The unfinished Oceanview Plaza reminded Cooper of those buildings, she said.
“I think it’s almost a metaphor,” she said. “We start things and don’t finish them, and then we get mad. People end up losing money, and then people end up losing jobs because they’re not working.”
Her fiancé, Mike Quintana, smiled as he looked at the colorful buildings.
“It’s an L.A. thing,” he said with a shrug.
“But when you think about it, this is America,” he said, pointing to the bustling Crypto.com Arena.
“And this is America in the future,” he said of the graffiti towers. “You’re going to run out of money someday.”
Across the street, a tattered Oceanview Plaza banner flapped in the wind.