About the Building
Wilshire Fremont is a seven storey condominium building of 1980 at 4460 Wilshire Boulevard, and the Los Angeles County Assessor confirms it as a genuine for-sale condominium rather than a rental held on one parcel. The roll carries forty-four separately assessed homes on recorded condominium Tract 35499, running consecutively from the first unit on the second level to unit 708 at the top. Each is coded 010C, the assessor's classification for a purpose-built condominium. That is the first thing worth establishing about any building of this vintage on Wilshire, because a good number of the boulevard's residential blocks of the same era were never subdivided and cannot be bought a unit at a time.
The scale of the homes is the building's defining feature. Assessor records give unit areas from about 1,937 square feet at the lower end to 2,931 square feet on the sixth and seventh levels, with one seventh-floor home at 2,796 square feet. A condominium directory publishes exactly the same span, 1,937 to 2,931 square feet, which is unusually clean corroboration between an aggregator and the public record. Forty-four homes spread across six residential levels averages a little over seven to a floor, and the assessor's unit numbers suggest fuller floors low down and fewer, larger homes at the top.
The regulatory context is the other half of the story. City Planning's Park Mile Specific Plan governs this segment of Wilshire, adopted by Ordinance 152471 in 1979 and substantially amended by Ordinance 162530, with Ordinance 154653 also in the chain. Its stated purpose is to protect the low density, single-family nature of the surrounding area. It caps most buildings at three storeys and forty-five feet, allows four storeys and fifty-five feet within Fire District No. 1, and permits six storeys and seventy-two feet only on specifically designated parcels. It also sets a floor area ratio of three to one and a fifteen foot front yard.
A seven storey building completed in 1980 therefore sits above every height tier the plan describes. The likeliest explanation is timing: a project of this size would have been designed, entitled and permitted well before the ordinance took effect in July 1979, and would have proceeded on rights already vested. That is worth confirming rather than assuming, because it determines what a future owner could rebuild. Ask City Planning for the parcel's overlay status and any case file, and understand that the building as it stands may well be larger and taller than anything the current framework would allow on the same lot.
On amenities, the published set is broad for a building of forty-four homes: a pool, spa, sauna and fitness room, a billiard room, banquet and meeting rooms, concierge coverage, controlled access with an automatic gate, and secure resident parking. These come from condominium directories rather than from the association, and one of them adds a bocce court and picnic area that the others do not. Treat the list as indicative and confirm the working amenity set, the staffing pattern and any facility currently out of service directly with management before you rely on any of it.
Amenities & Services
The Residences
The assessor carries forty-four separately assessed parcels on Tract 35499 at this address, running in an unbroken sequence with nothing before the first and nothing after unit 708. That is a hard number rather than a marketing figure, and it matches what the condominium directories publish. Forty-four homes across six residential levels is a low density for a building of this footprint, and it is the reason the plans are as large as they are. It also means a small association with a correspondingly small budget base, which is the trade a buyer makes for the space.
Assessor figures for individual units give 1,937 square feet on the second level, 2,456 on the fifth, and 2,931 on both the sixth and seventh, with another seventh-floor home at 2,796. A published directory gives the same overall range. Homes of nearly three thousand square feet are rare in Los Angeles condominiums outside the Wilshire Corridor and Century City, and they are what this building trades on. Square footage recorded by the assessor and square footage on the recorded condominium plan are measured differently, so read the plan before pricing anything per square foot.
The pattern in the assessor's unit sequence points to fuller floors on the lower levels and fewer homes at the top, with the sixth and seventh level units both recorded at 2,931 square feet. That is the standard arrangement in a building of this era: the plate narrows or the plan consolidates as it rises, and the upper homes gain corner exposure on more than one elevation. Confirm the count on your target floor from the recorded plan, since the difference between six and eight homes per level changes lift waiting, corridor length and the share of exterior wall each home enjoys.
Directories describe very large living rooms with fireplaces, dining rooms with wet bars, dual primary suites and space that converts to a den or office. That is a coherent picture of a high-end 1980 condominium plan and it carries the usual characteristics of the period: generous room dimensions, defined rather than open circulation, a separate formal dining room, and a kitchen conceived as a working room rather than as part of the living space. Buyers wanting an open plan should assume a wall comes out, and should ask the association what structural and acoustic review that requires.
The assessor records most of the sampled homes as two bedrooms with three bathrooms. In a home of 2,400 to 2,900 square feet that count almost certainly understates the usable sleeping accommodation, because assessor bedroom counts are drawn from historic field records and do not track later reconfiguration or rooms that were permitted as dens. Take the bedroom count from the recorded plan and from a physical inspection rather than from the tax record, and where a room is being marketed as a bedroom, check that it has the window and egress the code requires.
Directories describe secure resident parking behind an automatic gate, with controlled access to the building itself. What none of them state is how many spaces convey with a given home, whether they are side by side or tandem, and whether any storage is deeded or merely assigned by the board. In a building of forty-four homes averaging well over two thousand square feet, two spaces per residence would be the expectation, but expectation is not title. Read the deeded allocation off the preliminary title report and the condominium plan before you commit.
Due Diligence
This segment of Wilshire is governed by a specific plan adopted in 1979 by Ordinance 152471 and amended by Ordinance 162530, with the stated purpose of protecting the low density residential character of the surrounding neighbourhoods. It caps most buildings at three storeys and forty-five feet, sets a floor area ratio of three to one, requires a fifteen foot front yard and imposes a sky plane on the north side of the boulevard. Every project inside it goes to the plan's Design Review Board. That framework is why the boulevard here looks the way it does.
The plan's highest tier permits six storeys and seventy-two feet, and only on designated parcels. A seven storey building finished in 1980 therefore predates or sits outside that framework, almost certainly because the entitlement and permits ran ahead of the ordinance's adoption in mid-1979. Ask City Planning for the parcel's current overlay status and any case history. The practical significance is for future works: an addition, a rooftop structure or a rebuild would be assessed against today's rules, not against the building that exists.
Los Angeles Ordinance 183893 requires retrofit of non-ductile concrete buildings whose permit applications predate 13 January 1977. A seven storey residential building completed in 1980 is very unlikely to be wood frame, so its structural system is the relevant question, and so is the permit application date rather than the completion date. A building finished in 1980 could have been applied for in 1977 or 1978. Ask the association whether the city has ever issued an order for this address, and ask for any engineer's report on file.
The city's soft-story programme under Ordinances 183893 and 184081 applies only to wood-frame buildings of two or more storeys built to code standards enacted before 1 January 1978, with parking or similar open space at ground level. A seven storey building of 1980 fails both the construction type and the date test on any ordinary reading. That is a useful exclusion, but it is a statement about which mandatory programme applies, not a statement about how the building would perform. A structural engineer's walk-through is still worth the fee.
Forty-four homes must fund a lift system, a pool and spa, a sauna, a gym, common rooms, concierge coverage, a gated garage and the exterior of a seven storey building. That is a substantial plant on a narrow assessment base, and it is the single most important thing to test in the disclosure package. Read the reserve study, the last three years of financials and the minutes, and look specifically at lifts, plumbing risers, the roof and any facade or balcony work. Ask directly whether a special assessment has been discussed.
California Civil Code section 5551 requires associations to have exterior elevated elements with wood framing, including balconies and walkways more than six feet above ground, inspected by a licensed professional, with reports retained and inspections repeated at nine year intervals. Where those elements are steel or concrete the obligation differs, but the diligence question is the same. Ask whether an inspection has been performed at this building, what it found, and whether any repair identified in it has been completed and permitted.
Civil Code section 5550 requires a reserve study with a visual site inspection at least every three years, reviewed annually by the board. In a 1980 building the components that dominate that schedule are the lifts, the domestic water and waste piping, the roof, the garage waterproofing and the pool plant. Ask when the last study was done, what percentage funded the association is, and whether the board has been raising dues in line with the study's recommendation or deferring. Deferral is what produces special assessments later.
Directories say pets are permitted subject to the association's rules, which usually signals limits on number, weight or type rather than an open policy. On leasing, California law sets the floor: Civil Code section 4741 prevents an association from capping rentals below twenty-five percent of units, while allowing it to prohibit tenancies of thirty days or less. What this particular board has adopted is a separate question. Request the current CC&Rs, the rules and regulations, and any amendment recorded in the past few years.
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
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More about the neighbourhood: Mid Wilshire
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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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