Santa Monica WELCOME HOME

The ambitious plan to convert a portion of the Santa Monica Airport into green space took a major step forward this week, with the removal of airplane parking from the southeast corner of the facility. The six-acre site along Bundy Drive will be tied into the adjacent Santa Monica Airport Park, which currently features a dog play area and a soccer field. It is the first phase of an eventual 12-acre expansion of the park, which will also incorporate an additional airport property to the west.

Clarion Partners, a New York-based real estate firm, is partnering with Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company to convert a former Santa Monica factory into creative offices. The property, located at the northwest corner of Olympic Boulevard and 26th Street, is developed with a two-story structure which once served as a manufacturing facility for the Papermate Company. The adaptive reuse project, fittingly named the Pen Factory, will include 222,000 square feet of offices and a 700-car parking lot when completed in 2017.

Local real estate firm New Urban West (NUWI) has announced the impending completion of 1301 Colorado, a new creative office development near the Expo Line’s 17th Street/Santa Monica College Station. The adaptive reuse project, designed by Culver City-based Ehrlich Architects, repurposes a 14,000-square-foot structure built during the 1960s. According to a statement from NUWI’s Jason Han, the LEED-targeted space includes high ceilings, exposed original wood, concrete flooring and even bike and surfboard storage.

With the debut of the Expo Line’s Santa Monica extension expected by the end of this week, investors are rushing to take advantage of the highly anticipated light rail line with new commercial developments. One block east of the 26th Street/Bergamot Station, construction is now underway on a two-building office complex known as Santa Monica Gateway. The creative campus, which is rising from approximately 1.8-acre site at the southeast corner of Colorado Avenue and Stewart Street, will include a total of 200,000 square feet of office space above a 627-car underground parking garage.