View the photo gallery: Breathing new life into old
Greg Strangman, 44.
Hometown: Del Mar.
Education: National University with a bachelor’s in business administration with an emphasis in finance and real estate.
Family: Wife, Christina.
Company: L.W.P. Group, a residential and commercial real estate developer, stands for Live.Work.Play. It was founded in 1993.
Awards: Wayne Buss Memorial Award for Urban Creativity from the Urban Land Institute, awarded to Strangman (2011); Orchid Award for Social Sustainability from the San Diego Architectural Foundation (2010); Smart Growth Award: Re-Energize Award from the Urban Land Institute for Martin Building + Flats (2009)
Company contact: (619) 235-5616 or info@lwpgroup.com
Greg Strangman, owner of the trendy Pearl Hotel in Point Loma, is inspired by the leftover grit of history, the pureness of vegetable gardens and the take-everything-in-slowly attitudes of the Europeans.
He’s trying to weave in those sensibilities into the East Village, a place that has its challenges, he says, but could thrive if it just got a little bit of love.
The 44-year-old founder of L.W.P. Group, a residential and commercial developer in San Diego, is renovating the historic Carnegie Apartments building near Ninth Avenue and Broadway in downtown San Diego to bring affordable boutique living spaces to young working professionals.
The $800,000 facelift, set to debut on April 14, is part of his company’s Community @ brand, which focuses on honoring history and bringing people together in a world where people’s noses are constantly pointed toward mobile devices.
Strangman, who says he’s “really into the historical fabric” of old buildings, took the U-T San Diego along to his new residential project to explain his company’s philosophy and what San Diego could learn from Europeans — and New Yorkers.
Q: You’re a well-known name in the hospitality industry with the Pearl Hotel and the Onyx nightclub. How did you move into the residential side?
A: It was actually the reverse. I’ve been doing apartments since 1995. And I kind of ended up in the hotel business. It was what I wanted to graduate to. So during the economic downturn, around 2007 to 2008, I reverted back to apartments because hotel financing was not available.
Q: How was the transition back to the residential side?
A: Because of my experience at the Pearl, I came up with the Community @ brand. Why can’t we take the attributes of a boutique hotel and incorporate it into an apartment?
Q: Could you explain the Community @ brand?
A: To me, the living experience should start from the front door of the building, not the front door of your apartment. It’s about the residents coming together to create a community. We really wanted to make it a living experience, more than just a place to live.
Q: How do you achieve that?
A: It was really important to make use of common-area space in these buildings. Just as hotels have amenities for their guest, we have them for our residents, who we also call guests. But they’re more urban: a communal bike rack, communal vegetable garden, reusable bags for all to use, holding a rummage sale. Our common area has music. We have outings.
Community @ features
• Free Wi-fi to promote what Strangman calls “coffeehouse culture.”
• Art and installations throughout the property.
• Custom music from Groove247.com, the music site for Strangman’s company L.W.P. Group. It’s set up in common areas.
• Community swaps, where people sell, give away or trade goods.
• Communal garden.
• Communal bike racks and reusable bags.
Note: Not all of these features are featured at all of the Community @-branded buildings.
Q: How do you ensure a resident partakes in the community?
A: We’re trying to build more of a community lifestyle and we include that in our (rental) applications. To be considered to live in our properties, you have to say what you can contribute not to me the landlord but to others you will live with. For example, someone can say, ‘I love baking. Give me $25 a month to buy flour, chocolate … to make chocolate cookies for my fellow neighbors to enjoy in the lobby.’ Or, ‘let’s plan a bike ride, or volunteer at the senior center.’ So part of our application process is seeing if they buy into our core values.
Q: Why are those values important to you?
A: Community is what makes the world go round. We’ve become such a culture of text-messaging, emailing people. People don’t walk. People don’t get together. Let me ask you. If you go to a restaurant, would you rather have a great meal with average service, or an average meal with great service? … Nine out of 10 people would want the great service because it’s about the human interaction. It’s also about experiences and memories you create.
Q: Could you tell me about the first building that went through a Community @ branding process?
A: The Martin building in Bankers Hill; it’s all apartments. It opened in 2009.
Q: Why did you pick this building to renovate?
A: It was a really cool, old building that really fits the profile of adaptive reuse that I really focus on. I love old buildings and breathing a whole new life into them. It’s like resuscitating a building instead of demolishing it.
Q: Why does this place stand out?
A: Not a lot of real estate developers are using street art or graffiti to enhance buildings. We have that to create more of an urban environment.
Q: You have a new Community @ project. What can you tell me about that?
A: That’s the Carnegie building. It was built in 1912 and it was originally a limited-service hotel that rented out space for a day, a week, or a month at a time. They all had kitchens and full bathrooms. They didn’t have housekeeping in the rooms, but you’d get fresh linens and walk out of there with fresh sheets and fresh towels.
Q: Why did you pick this building?
A: Again, it was an older building that needed new life. I also liked its location in the East Village even though it’s really gritty and the homeless situation can be a challenge. I’m hoping to contribute something good to the community. It’s 60 units and will have common spaces.
Q: What has inspired your work?
A: Traveling the world. My numerous trips to New York, where I looked at the lifestyle. It’s the same thing I saw in Europe. Europeans have it all figured out. We, Americans, don’t like living in the moment. We down a tall latte and get going instead of making a dinner that takes an hour, an hour-and-a-half. In Europe, their dinners take three to four hours.
Q: Could you name a few architectural influences?
A: The latest thing I’m really influenced by is Williamsburg, N.Y. It’s been a really cool example of gentrification. I’ve also always been a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright. What he did with the Guggenheim. He was so far ahead of his time.
Q: How does San Diego stack up against New York and other big cities?
A: San Diego is still very untouched, very immature in that way. If you’re looking at downtown properties, we’re far behind the curb because our communities are still suburban. They’re not inclusive.
Want to get on the wait-list for the Carnegie Apartments building? Visit communitysd.com.
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