Koreatown WELCOME HOME

Seems like the Archeon Group’s work is showing up all over Koreatown these days. Last week we took a glance at a their very preliminary looking design for a mixed-use project on Vermont Avenue. Now we head north of Wilshire to check out renderings of 535 Kingsley Drive. The low-rise development, which was first spotted back in August, would contain 83 apartments and a parking garage within its six-story frame. Will the architecture win awards?

Koreatown has mixed-use developments springing up left and right these days, but this one comes with an Ivy League pedigree. Plans were submitted in late October for a six-story building at the southeastern corner of 8th Street and Harvard Boulevard. The project, appropriately named 8th & Harvard, would contain 131 residential units above 7,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. Architectural work once again comes from the Archeon Group, which currently has several Koreatown projects in predevelopment.

When we last checked in on Century West Partners’ K2LA development, the project’s first 130-unit building had topped out near the intersection of 7th and Berendo Streets. Just two months later, the landscape south of Wilshire Boulevard has changed dramatically. Construction crews are now busy excavating former parking lots to create the subterranean garages for the project’s second and third structures, located at 680 Berendo and 685 New Hampshire Avenue. The two buildings, both designed by architect David Forbes Hibbert, are expected to open in the second half of 2014, combining to create 347 apartments within walking distance of the busy Wilshire Vermont subway station.

Bustling Koreatown has been on a building boom as of late, and a parcel just north of Wilshire Boulevard wants to get in on the action. “The Nest,” a self-described apartment-hotel development, intends to replace a surface parking lot at 621 Catalina Street with 75 hotel rooms and seven apartment dwellings. Residences and guest rooms would rise above approximately 1,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space, intended for a small cafe or store.

In Koreatown, it’s out with the old and in the the new, as developers lay waste to early 20th century structures to make room for new multi-family buildings. Next up on the chopping block may be a pair of 100+ year old bungalows located just south of 8th Street. A new proposal would level the structures at 831 - 843 Harvard Boulevard to make way for a larger, 67-unit development. This project, located at 837 Harvard, appears to be the work of the locally based Keren Investment Group.

Resurgent Koreatown continues on its upward trajectory, with a new residential development planned one block south of Wilshire Boulevard. A surface parking lot at 2867 Sunset Place, just a short walk from Lafayette Park, is set to make way for a new 60-unit apartment building. Located three blocks east of Wilshire/Vermont Station, the development would include parking accommodations for 77 vehicles. This section of the neighborhood is currently in the midst of mini-development boom, with the signs of adaptive re-use projects and ground up construction apparent throughout the neighborhood.

Jam packed Koreatown is about to become a little bit more dense, with a new residential project slated for a property located just south of 1st Street. According to plans recently filed with the city, a five-story, 40-unit condominium development is proposed for the parcel at 111 South Mariposa Avenue. The project’s LADCP case filing indicates that the building would provide future residents with 90 parking spaces, supplemented by a whopping total of five bicycle parking stalls.

In packed urban environments such as Koreatown, the lack of easily buildable land often forces new developments to take creative measures. Case in point: the nondescript parking garage at the northeast corner of 6th Street and Kenmore Avenue. Already stuffed to the brim with ground floor commercial tenants, a developer now plans to construct additional floors atop the existing four-story structure, creating 53 apartment dwellings. The new residential community proposes a variety of open space amenities, including a rec-room, community room, and courtyards for each additional floor.

Much of LA County’s Metro Rail network traverses walkable, urban settings. Neither of those terms describe the immediate surroundings of the Red Line’s Vermont/Beverly Station. Flanked by a gas station and a Hyundai dealership, the auto-oriented locale hardly screams “subway station.“ Luckily, change may finally be on the way. According to an LADCP case filing from earlier this month, an affordable housing development is planned across the street from the station, located at 241 N.

Per an LADCP case filing from last month, a sizeable multi-family residential development is headed to the western edge of Koreatown. The apartment complex, pegged for an approximately one-acre property at 700 South Manhattan Place, would offer 162 residential units within a seven-story structure. The project site, currently developed with surface parking and a nondescript two-story structure, spans slightly more than one acre near the intersection of Western Avenue and 7th Street.