The 72-story U.S. Bank Tower will remain an office building but it will get about $50 million worth of improvements, including a makeover of the lobby. (David McNew / Getty Images)

U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building in the West, will soon have an observation deck and sky-high restaurant catering to visitors to downtown Los Angeles.

The deck, the first of its kind in Southern California, will provide visitors with a sweeping view of Los Angeles, stretching from the hills of Glendale to Catalina Island.

The 72-story skyscraper, completed in 1989, will remain an office building, the owners said Tuesday, but it will get about $50 million worth of improvements, including a makeover of the lobby.

Singapore investor Overseas Union Enterprise Ltd. bought the tower at 633 W. 5th St. for $367.5 million last year. It was only about half occupied, and market observers speculated that at least some of the empty space might be converted to hotel or residential use.

But "it doesn't make any sense" for the tower to be anything but offices, said Richard Stockton, chief executive of the Americas for OUE. The floors are too big for other uses, he said.

OUE will instead try to capitalize on the tower's height to make it a busy tourist attraction like the Empire State Building in New York and the Willis Tower in Chicago, both of which are more than 100 stories tall....Continue Reading

> via LA Times