Robert Bisno

Hammerstein and his partner, Robert Bisno, had expected to charge rents of $3 per square foot but ended up getting $4.50 per square foot, Hammerstein says.

Robert H. Bisno, individually and as general partner of TransAction Equity Investors, III; et al.

Last fall, a proposal to build 64 condominiums fell out of escrow when the developer, Bob Bisno, chairman of TransAction Companies Ltd., decided it was too small a project for the risk involved.The risk he was referring to involved potential delays in consideration of the height variance required and possible traffic mitigation measures, including a traffic light at Los Liones.

In the last decade, building owner Robert Bisno of TransAction Corporation had attempted not once, but countless times, to remove the mostly low- and moderate-income residents from their courtyard apartments in order to convert them into luxury townhomes and upscale rentals.
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The Venice Community Plan, in addition to several legal rulings, had prevented Bisno from razing and rebuilding the complex, but in October of 2000, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs ruled that, under the state Ellis Act, the City had violated state law by prohibiting development based only on the fact that a number of affordable rental units would be lost forever in the process.Bisno has since changed his game plan, choosing to renovate the apartments one by one, in order to rent them at market rates, with one-bedroom units beginning at $2,000.Lincoln Place Tenants Association (LPTA) members allege that Bisno is engaging in a pattern of tenant harassment meant to forcibly displace the current residents so that he may begin renovations in the first six of the buildings – 88 units out of the total 795 that make up the complex – without having to offer legally-required low-income rentals to 25% of the current tenants. (The fewer remaining tenants, they argue, the less people he must take into account when figuring the 25%.) Renovations have begun on one building, at the corner of Frederick Street and Lake.
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It is unknown whether TransAction intends to replace the landscaping during renovations, or if tenants will have to live in buildings surrounded by dirt moats until renovations are complete. (The Mirror made several attempts to contact Robert Bisno for this story.He is currently out of the country.) In either case, tenants feel this is only the latest in a series of blows meant to demoralize and intimidate them. They also say they are not alone.With the weakening of rent controls by the Costa-Hawkins Act, affordable housing is becoming less and less available on the westside of Los Angeles.Lincoln Place, they contend, is one of the few remaining enclaves of affordable housing in the area.
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To protest what the LPTA characterizes as Bisno's "end run around the law," residents and neighbors will hold a demonstration at noon on Saturday, July 14, Bastille Day in France, in front of Lincoln Place Apartment's rental office, 1042 Frederick Street (one block east of Lincoln Boulevard, between Lake Street and California Avenue).

In the last decade , building owner Robert Bisno of TransAction Corporation had attempted not once , but countless times , to remove the mostly low- and moderate-income residents from their courtyard apartments in order to convert them into luxury townhomes and upscale rentals.
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The Venice Community Plan , in addition to several legal rulings , had prevented Bisno from razing and rebuilding the complex , but in October of 2000 , Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs ruled that , under the state Ellis Act , the City had violated state law by prohibiting development based only on the fact that a number of affordable rental units would be lost forever in the process.Bisno has since changed his game plan , choosing to renovate the apartments one by one , in order to rent them at market rates , with one-bedroom units beginning at $2 , 000.Lincoln Place Tenants Association ( LPTA ) members allege that Bisno is engaging in a pattern of tenant harassment meant to forcibly displace the current residents so that he may begin renovations in the first six of the buildings – 88 units out of the total 795 that make up the complex – without having to offer legally-required low-income rentals to 25% of the current tenants. ( The fewer remaining tenants , they argue , the less people he must take into account when figuring the 25%. ) Renovations have begun on one building , at the corner of Frederick Street and Lake.
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It is unknown whether TransAction intends to replace the landscaping during renovations , or if tenants will have to live in buildings surrounded by dirt moats until renovations are complete. ( The Mirror made several attempts to contact Robert Bisno for this story.He is currently out of the country. ) In either case , tenants feel this is only the latest in a series of blows meant to demoralize and intimidate them.They also say they are not alone.With the weakening of rent controls by the Costa-Hawkins Act , affordable housing is becoming less and less available on the westside of Los Angeles.Lincoln Place , they contend , is one of the few remaining enclaves of affordable housing in the area.

Robert Bisno, the owner of the apartment complex, which was built just after World War II, has been trying for some time to redevelop the property, and tore down two of the complex's 52 buildings last month despite vociferous opposition from tenants and community groups.The five buildings now targeted for demolition run from 1024 to 1942 Lake Street.They were gutted a year-and-a-half ago and stand empty, with their landscaping ripped up and poisoned, and windows broken by passersby. Over the weekend, Bisno agreed not to knock the buildings down, at least in the short-term, after the California Preservation Foundation (CPF) and the Los Angeles-based 20th Century Architecture Alliance, filed a lawsuit challenging permits to raze the buildings.
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Tenants of Lincoln Place - who have been fighting Bisno for more than a decade - are ecstatic that outside agencies have joined them in the struggle.

Prompted by Robert Bisno, a former owner of Lincoln Place, the subcommittee is considering legislation that would amend the National Historic Preservation Act to require the owner's consent before a property could be determined eligible for inclusion on the register.
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Robert Bisno, CEO of TransAction Financial Corporation, a Century City-based real estate development company, bought the property in 1986.By 1991, Lincoln Place,which had been trumpeted four decades earlier as a "completely planned $8,000,000 community",was worth four to seven times that much, thanks to a housing boom that transformed the spacious complex into an irresistible business opportunity.Bisno wanted to demolish the apartments and build condos and town homes in their stead.In 1995, the L.A. city planning commission approved his redevelopment plan.

Seven years of legal battles followed among Bisno, the Lincoln Place Tenants Association, the City of Los Angeles, the L.A. Conservancy, the ACLU, and a host of others.Many of the fights hinged on whether Bisno's redevelopment plans would illegally remove affordable housing from the area.
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"Bisno is still garnishing my wages for that one," she says.
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"These tenants are attempting to misuse the system to protect their rents," Bisno says.