After Two Fires, in 2013 and 2020, The Decision Was Made To Upgrade Fire Systems In The Building
Barrington Plaza Apartments, located in the southwest corner of Wilshire and Barrington, has announced that all units in its three towers will be removed from the rental market to comply with city directives to install fire sprinklers and other life safety improvements throughout the towers following the January 2020 fire. The cost of the project is estimated to be over $300 million and can take several years to complete. All remaining tenants will need to vacate their apartments within four months.
The decision to remove all units from the rental market comes after the building experienced two fires within seven years, one in 2013 and the other in 2020, which resulted in the death of a college foreign exchange student. Following the 2020 fire, eight floors were red-tagged and those units have not been returned to service.
Currently, there are 55 high-rise residential buildings in Los Angeles without fire sprinklers, with most of them built between 1943 and 1974. All high-rise buildings built after 1974 are sprinklered, and all residential high-rise buildings built before 1943 were retroactively sprinklered in response to the Dorothy Mae Fire in 1982.
Management at Barrington Plaza Apartments will follow all local and state laws relating to removing units, which are subject to the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance. In addition to the state and local requirements, Barrington Plaza will have relocation specialists available at the property who can provide individualized tenant support and aid in locating, viewing, and moving into new residences.
Tenants are required to vacate their apartments by the end of the day on September 5, 2023, unless they qualify for extended time. The time to vacate can be extended to one year provided that the resident lived in the apartment for at least one year on May 8, 2023, and meets certain criteria.
Barrington Plaza is voluntarily providing additional relocation support, including having relocation specialists on site each day to assist tenants with filling out and filing the required documents, providing referrals to alternate residences within a 3-mile radius, coordinating transportation for tenants to view replacement housing, and assisting tenants with new residence applications. An on-call hotline will also be available to answer tenant questions.
