Culver City WELCOME HOME

Culver City has spent the past decade beefing up its commercial peninsula along Washington Boulevard, and that trend continues with yet another mixed-use development on the way. According to plans filed late last month, a 97-unit apartment building with 15,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space is proposed at 11925 Louise Avenue. The five-story building would front the intersection of Washington and Inglewood Boulevards, rising on property that is split between the boundaries of Los Angeles and Culver City.

Last summer, the two bridges that will carry Expo Line trains over Venice Boulevard were little more than a couple of empty rebar cages. Just over half-a-year later, the concrete has cured and the only things missing from the above picture are steel rails and catenary wiring. Now carrying over 27,000 passengers on a daily basis, the Expo Line officially surpassed its 2020 ridership projection seven years ahead of schedule. That’s a positive sign, given that extensions are currently in the works at both ends of the line.

Across the street from the Kirk Douglas Theater, the $63 million NMS@Culver City is still chugging along. Designed by Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects, the finished product will stand six stories, containing 131 apartment units above 12,500 square feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space. Previous reports indicated that the project was expected to open this Spring. As the calendar clearly indicates, that’s probably not happening. Located less than one mile south of Culver City Station, NMS’ project is one of three spurred into action by the 2012 return of rail service to the Westside.

Fresh off a demoralizing round of layoffs in March, Sony Pictures Entertainment is roaring back with a vengeance. According to a notice recently distributed by Culver City’s Planning Commission, the film and entertainment giant is seeking approval for an expansion project that would add new office and production facilities to its historic Washington Boulevard studio complex. The first aspect of the project, a 218,000 square foot office and support building, would rise eight stories, replacing a current surface parking lot next to Sony Picture Studios’ Overland Avenue entrance.

The above image should be a very familiar to all passengers coming to and from the Expo Line’s current Culver City terminus. Nine months after breaking ground at the corner of Washington and National Boulevards, the Runyon Group is still roaring ahead with construction on their mixed-use development known as the Platform. The Abramson Teiger-designed project will feature an eclectic mixture of retail, restaurant and office space. Steel framing is now in place for Boxcar, a four-story creative office building located at northeast corner of Washington Boulevard and Landmark Street.

After climbing upwards at a snail’s pace for two years, the wooden frame of the Sony Studios-adjacent NMS@Culver City appears to be (mostly) complete. Located at the northwest corner of Hughes Avenue and Washington Boulevard, the low-rise edifice will feature 131 rental apartments above 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space. The $63 million project from locally-based NMS Properties has fallen significantly behind its previously announced development timeline, which called for the residential-retail complex to open in Spring of this year.

Roughly half-a-year after breaking ground, a minor expansion project is wrapping up exterior work on the Sony Picture Studios lot (SPS). The new Studio Support Building, located near the Sony complex’s Mentone Avenue gate, will contain approximately 23,000 square feet of production and office space within its four-story frame. Exterior materials appears to consist primarily of earth tone stucco, broken up by misaligned windows. More grandiose expansion plans are also in the works for other parts of the SPS lot.

Developer NMS Properties has unveiled a new rendering for the NMS Culver City, a residential-retail complex currently under construction along the border between Palms and Culver City. The $63 million development, designed by Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects, will feature 131 apartments above 12,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. The low-rise structure is located at the northwest corner of Washington Boulevard and Hughes Avenue, directly across the street from both Sony Picture Studios and the Kirk Douglas Theater.

In Culver City, construction is wrapping up on the Oliver Apartments, a residential-retail complex from the Vancouver-based Bastion Development Corporation. Standing three stories at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Marcasel Avenue, the building will include 30 one-and-two-bedroom apartments above 8,700 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. The low-rise structure, clad mostly in smooth-finish stucco and wood paneling, features private balconies on three sides. Bastion’s project is slated for completion in March 2015.

Amidst the rumble of passing Expo Line trains, construction pushes ahead for the highly anticipated development known as Access Culver City. The mixed-use complex from Greystar Real Estate Partners broke ground just over one year ago at the intersection of Washington and National Boulevards, directly across the street from Metro’s Culver City Station. When completed in July, the five-story structure will offer 115 apartment units above 30,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a subterranean parking garage.