A Sawtelle-area high rise handed tenants some startling news yesterday: it’s time to go!
As reported by the L.A. Times, the owners of Barrington Plaza said Monday that they plan to evict all tenants to make way for a sprinkler retrofit that will cost more than $300 million and take several years to complete. That means 577 currently occupied units need to be emptied.
The L.A. Times notes that some of those units house tenants who have lived in the property for decades under rent control.
Current tenants may have has long as a year to move out, and some could receive more than $22,000 in financial assistance for relocation, the landlord said.
For those who have lived in the building for less than three years, as much as $9,200 will be provided for relocation expenses.
Landlord Douglas Emmett Inc. notified city of L.A. officials that it will withdraw all 712 units in Barrington Plaza from the rental market under the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to remove tenants from rent-stabilized apartments if their building is removed from the rental market. No completion date has been set and there are no provisions for tenants to return to their units.
Barrington Plaza has a history of life-threatening fires, including a 2020 fire in Town A in which a 19-year-old man died and 13 people were injured.