‘Fast & Furious’ Director Justin Lin Shoots for $7 Million Sale of Celeb-Pedigreed Loft
Taiwanese-born American filmmaker Justin Lin has listed a multilevel live-work loft atop a converted factory complex in downtown Los Angeles with an asking price of $7 million.
The celebrated film director, who has helmed a handful of the blockbuster Fast & Furious films, including 2021’s F9, which grossed almost three quarters of a billion bucks in worldwide box office, as well as the next two upcoming installments of the seemingly endless franchise, hopes to turns an impressive profit on the cavernous loft that he scooped up in 2012 for $2.6 million from architecture savvy actor, artist and provocateur Vincent Gallo. So the story goes, Gallo never lived in the loft, at least not full time, and at one point he leased it to Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage.
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Lin, who grew up in Orange County’s Buena Park but for at least the last decade has made his primary home in Pasadena, where he owns a couple residential properties, has used the downtown penthouse over the last few years as the headquarters of his film production company, Perfect Storm Entertainment. It has been staged for the selling process by Vesta Home.
Originally constructed in 1925 by E.J. Eckel as the West Coast headquarters of Nabisco, the Arts District complex, now knowns as the Biscuit Company Lofts, was converted to live/work spaces in 2007, the same year it was declared a Historic Cultural Monument. The building offers residents around-the-clock concierge services, a recently remodeled fitness area, a swimming pool and, perhaps best of all, Mills Act coverage, which reduces property taxes.
Spanning the 7th-9th floors, the interior measures about 4,300 square feet, with another 3,600 square feet of private outdoor spaces. Complete with a private elevator that services all three floors, the one-of-a-kind penthouse has all the hallmarks of a classic loft conversion: sandblasted exposed brick walls, honey-toned maple floorboards, industrial-sized mullioned sash windows, and soaring ceilings laced with exposed ductwork. Just off the main living/dining space, with its two-plus-story ceiling and Escher-sque staircases, the kitchen continues the loft’s utilitarian simplicity with stainless-steel cabinetry.
There are two bedrooms and 2.5 baths sprinkled throughout the apartment, though neither of the bedrooms qualifies as anywhere near conventional. A floor-to-ceiling curtain is all that separates the lofted main bedroom from the living/dining space below, and the second bedroom, tucked away on the lowest level, does not include a door for privacy.
For those seeking a quintessential SoCal indoor-outdoor lifestyle, there’s a huge terrace off the living/dining room and kitchen, a smaller one off the main bedroom, and a sunbaked roof terrace that provides wrap-around city, mountain and, on a clear day, ocean views.
The penthouse loft is listed with Lin’s brother Jimmy Lin, of One True Loan, along with Justin Alexander and Tab Howard of The Alexander Team at Compass.
This story first appeared on Dirt.com.
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