About the Building
The Gramercy is a condominium building of 2010 at 311 South Gramercy Place, and the Los Angeles County Assessor confirms it as a genuine for-sale condominium rather than a rental held on one deed. The roll carries thirty separately assessed parcels on recorded condominium Tract 66825, Lot 1, each described as an airspace unit with a one-thirtieth undivided interest in the common area, and each coded 010C, the assessor's classification for a purpose-built condominium. The parcels were created on 18 March 2010. That is the first question to settle about any building of this scale in this district, because a good number of its neighbours were never subdivided and cannot be bought one home at a time.
The unit numbering tells you how the building is organised. The recorded units run 201 through 606: six homes on each of five levels, with nothing numbered on the ground floor. On a site of 21,063 square feet that means the street level is given over to entry, circulation and parking rather than to living space, and the residential floors begin one level up. Six homes to a floor across a lot of this width implies a double-loaded corridor with a lift core in the middle, and it implies corner exposure for four of the six on every level. Confirm which of the six your target home is from the recorded condominium plan.
The homes are unusually consistent. The assessor records the first residential unit, 201, at 1,600 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, and the top-floor unit 606 at exactly the same 1,600 square feet with the same count. A building where the lowest and highest homes carry identical recorded areas is one built on a repeating plate rather than a tapering one, which is a meaningful thing to know: it means the sixth floor is not a penthouse level in the conventional sense, and that what you are paying more for as you rise is light, quiet and outlook rather than square footage. Verify the area of any specific home against the recorded plan.
The site history is legible in the record. The predecessor parcel at this address, described as lots 65 and 66 of Westminster Square, carried an older apartment building on 14,002 square feet and was coded 0500, the assessor's category for a five-or-more-unit residential building of four storeys or less. That parcel was deleted from the roll on 2 January 2007. The condominium that replaced it sits on 21,063 square feet, so the developer assembled additional land before building. The gap between the 2007 deletion and the 2010 unit creation is a normal construction and sales timeline for a project of this size.
On what the association provides, the published set is modest and appropriate to a thirty-home building: a fitness room, a clubhouse or residents' lounge, controlled access with an automatic gate, card and code entry, camera surveillance and gated resident parking with guest stalls. These come from condominium directories rather than from the association itself, and there is no published architect or developer for the building in any source that meets a reasonable evidentiary standard. Treat the amenity list as indicative, and confirm the working facilities, the staffing pattern and anything currently out of service directly with management.
Amenities & Services
The Residences
The assessor carries thirty separately assessed parcels on Tract 66825 at this address, running consecutively with nothing before unit 201 and nothing after unit 606. Each legal description recites a one-thirtieth undivided interest in the common area, which is the arithmetic check: thirty airspace units, thirty equal shares. That is a hard number from the public record rather than a marketing figure, and it happens to match what the condominium directories publish. Thirty homes also sets the scale of the association's budget, which is the trade a buyer accepts in exchange for a building this small and this quiet.
The numbering runs 201 to 606 with six units on each level, which is a clean and legible plate. On a 21,063 square foot site that arrangement usually produces two corner homes and one mid-block home on each of the two long elevations, with the lift and stair core between them. What that means in practice is that four of every six homes have windows on two elevations and two do not, and the difference in daylight between those positions is larger than the difference in price usually reflects. Establish the orientation of your target home before anything else.
Both sampled homes, the lowest at unit 201 and the highest at unit 606, are recorded at 1,600 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. A repeating plate of that size in a 2010 building means generous room dimensions by contemporary standards, a genuine third bedroom rather than a den, and enough width for a proper primary suite. Assessor areas and recorded plan areas are measured differently and rarely agree to the foot, so read the condominium plan before pricing per square foot, and expect the marketing sheet to quote a slightly larger number than the roll.
Because unit 606 carries the same recorded area and the same bedroom and bathroom count as unit 201, the sixth floor is a repeat of the plate rather than a consolidated penthouse floor. That is worth naming plainly, because upper-floor homes in buildings like this are frequently marketed as penthouses without the plan changing at all. What the top level genuinely offers is no neighbour overhead, less transmitted footfall, and better outlook over the surrounding two- and three-storey fabric. Those are real, but they are amenity rather than area, and they should be priced as such.
No unit is numbered on the first level, which places the lobby, the circulation and the resident parking at grade and below. Parking is described in the directories as gated, side by side, with guest stalls and built-in storage. Side-by-side allocation matters more than it sounds: tandem spaces are the usual compromise in buildings on lots this size, and a side-by-side pair is materially more usable. Read the deeded parking and storage allocation for your specific home off the title report rather than off the listing, because allocations in small buildings are often uneven.
A residential building of this height completed in 2010 in the City of Los Angeles was designed to a code cycle two full generations beyond the buildings that surround it on this block. Expect a concrete podium at the parking and lower levels with framing above, sprinklers throughout, current lift standards, and the acoustic separation assemblies that came in with the 2000s code cycles. None of that is a performance guarantee, but it changes the shape of your inspection: the questions here are about workmanship, water management at balconies and windows, and how the association has maintained a fifteen-year-old building, not about its structural generation.
Due Diligence
This is a true condominium. The assessor carries thirty separately assessed parcels on Tract 66825, each coded 010C and each reciting a one-thirtieth interest in the common area. You take fee title to an airspace unit and a share of the common area, and you finance it as an ordinary condominium. There is no ground lease in the record and no co-operative structure. Your lender will still want the association's questionnaire, budget and insurance certificate, and a small association can be slow to produce them, so ask early.
Directories describe gated resident parking with side-by-side spaces, guest stalls and built-in storage. None of that tells you what is deeded to a specific home. In buildings of thirty units, parking is commonly allocated by the recorded plan with some spaces as exclusive-use common area rather than as deeded property, and the two are treated differently on resale and in disputes. Read the title report and the condominium plan together, and confirm in writing how many spaces, of what type, and in what location transfer with the home.
No leasing rule is published by the association. California law sets the floor: Civil Code section 4741 prevents an association from adopting a rental cap below twenty-five per cent of the units, while permitting it to prohibit tenancies of thirty days or fewer. Whether this board has adopted a cap, a minimum term, or a waiting period after purchase is a question only the governing documents answer. Request the current CC&Rs and every rule amendment adopted since, and read them before you commit if letting matters to your plan.
The association does not publish its dues or its inclusions. In a building of this size and vintage the assessment normally covers water, trash, common-area maintenance, lift service, the gated entry systems, landscaping and the master insurance policy, with electricity, gas, cable and internet billed to the owner. In a thirty-home association the fixed costs of insurance, lifts and management are shared across a small base, which tends to make dues higher per square foot than in a large tower. Obtain the current budget and the last two years of financials.
Civil Code section 5550 requires a California association to complete a reserve study with a visual inspection at least every three years and to review it annually. On a 2010 building the major items now entering the window are lift modernisation, roof and deck membranes, exterior sealants, the gate and access control systems, and eventually mechanical plant. Ask for the current reserve study, the percentage funded, and whether the board has adopted a funding plan or has been relying on special assessments to close gaps.
This building falls outside both of the City of Los Angeles mandatory retrofit programmes. Ordinance 183893 reaches wood-frame soft-storey buildings permitted before 1 January 1978 and non-ductile concrete buildings whose permit application predates 13 January 1977; Ordinance 184081 amended the compliance framework. A building completed in 2010 sits three decades on the safe side of both cutoffs. That is a statement about code compliance, not about performance in a specific earthquake, and it does not remove the case for asking what earthquake cover the association carries.
Californian condominium insurance has repriced sharply, and small associations have been hit hardest because they lack the premium volume to negotiate. Ask three questions in writing: what the master policy covers and to what limit, whether earthquake cover is carried and at what deductible, and what the deductible allocation clause in the CC&Rs does to an owner when a covered loss occurs. The answers change what you should buy in your own HO-6 walls-in policy, and they change the realistic cost of ownership.
No architectural standard is published. In a building of this era expect association review of any plan touching plumbing, structure or the exterior, a requirement for acoustic underlayment beneath hard flooring, restrictions on penetrating the floor slab, and no unilateral change to windows, doors or balcony surfaces, which are normally exclusive-use common area rather than yours. Ask for the architectural guidelines and the approval history of recent renovations in the building before you plan anything beyond finishes.
Everything above is drawn from public records, city permit data and published sources. The association’s statutory disclosure package is the only authoritative answer on dues, rules, reserves, insurance and litigation — Ben will request it and read it with you before you remove contingencies.
Common Questions
Keep Exploring
More about the neighbourhood: Mid Wilshire
Off Market & Coming Soon
Residences here reach the open market rarely, and some never do. Ask Ben to tell you when one is coming, including quietly.
Work With Ben
Units here often trade before they are ever listed. Tell Ben what you are looking for and hear first when something opens up, including off market.
Start the ConversationOff Market & Coming Soon
Residences here reach the open market rarely, and some never do. Ask Ben to tell you when one is coming, including quietly.
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