[oh_sigh]

Waste of space: Not really? The plot of land the building is on is ~ 1/3rd of an acre. Immediately adjacent to it are multiple street level-only parking lots that have a larger footprint. I guess providing parking to 60 cars is more useful than an empty building, but not by much, especially considering the building will probably be rehabbed eventually. For reference the LACC 1 block away has parking for 6000 cars, and done in a reasonable, space-efficient manner (multilevel underground parking).

Waste of money: Whose money? The developers? Sure. But it isn't like random tax paying citizens of LA had any kind of stake in it.