Arts District WELCOME HOME

With a number of historic industrial buildings in the Arts District already undergoing conversions to office space, developers have now headed into mostly uncharted territory: ground-up construction. Earlier this week, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles for the construction of a mid-rise office building along the railroad tracks on the eastern fringe of the neighborhood. The proposed development, slated for a .54-acre site at 2144 E. Violet Street, would consist of a nine-story, 108-foot tall building featuring nearly 91,000 square feet of office space, 6,100 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a 274-car garage.

Although some Arts District land owners have begun preaching patience, others are still looking to capitalize on Downtown’s ongoing building boom. Earlier this week, an environmental review was requested for a proposed development at 520 S. Mateo Street. The project, slated for a two-acre site which also fronts Santa Fe Avenue and 4th Place, would consist of 600 live-work condominiums and approximately 60,000 square feet of commercial floor area. An existing industrial building, built in 1988, would be demolished for the development.

Chalmers Equity Group, an industrial and commercial real estate firm based out of Pico Rivera, has broken ground on a new office building on the eastern perimeter of the Arts District. The Santa Fe Business Center, now rising from an approximately one-acre site at 500 S. Santa Fe Avenue, will consist of a four-story building featuring just under 100,000 square feet of office space and a 199-car garage. Plans on file with the City of Los Angeles indicate that the project would also include a rooftop amenity deck.