Make California Post a Preferred Source The infamous “Graffiti Towers” in downtown Los Angeles have been almost completely scrubbed clean of the eyesore illegal artwork following a $517 million bankruptcy sale.
The Oceanwide Plaza, a trio of unfinished skyscrapers, had been sitting abandoned since 2019 and became a viral canvas for taggers in Downtown LA. The half-built skyscrapers across from Crypto.com Arena are currently undergoing a massive transformation ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.
Cleanup crews worked 35 floors up on hanging platforms to clean graffiti off of approximately 250 balconies. Along the way, they collected about 1,000 disgarded spray-paint cans and even found a loaded gun.
The bid to acquire the long-stalled development was approved in favor of KPC Square, a joint venture between KPC Group and Lendlease on July 21, 2026.
As part of the court-approved plan, the new owners had to get all the graffiti on the three unfinished towers removed within 90 days, ending on Oct. 20.
“We finished the 250th one at 4 o’clock on Oct. 20, exactly 90 days,” John Petty, head of real estate development at KPC Group, told the LA Business Journal. “We had to work overtime to get there.”
The windows between the balconies were even harder to clean, reached only by lowering platforms from the roof.
Some balconies were done in an hour, while others took four to five hours because vandals put paint over paint, laid down primer, or added a clear topcoat, Petty told the Journal.
To strip the paint, workers blasted the walls with boiling-hot chemicals and water. KPC tested several options before picking World’s Greatest Graffiti Removal Products.
Petty told the Journal that the owner of the East LA-based company “has come out here and basically played master chemist.”
The Plaza’s construction began in 2015 as a $1.2 billion luxury development featuring a Park Hyatt hotel, condominiums and retail space across from Crypto.com Arena and LA Live.
Construction halted in 2019 after Beijing-based parent company Oceanwide Holdings ran out of money, leaving contractor Lendlease with more than $150 million in unpaid bills. Over the next five years, Oceanwide failed to find financing or a buyer.
The developers are retaining the original mixed-use layout, which includes 504 luxury condominiums, a 184-room Park Hyatt hotel, and over 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
