South Park WELCOME HOME

A series of large residential developments will soon bring more than 1,000 new apartments, plus street-level shops and restaurants, to a three-block section of Pico Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles. Now, a developer is looking to expand the neighborhood’s booming residential population to a new frontier through a proposed mixed-use complex on the eastern fringe of South Park. The project - slated for a .67-acre site at 1340 S. Olive Street - would consist of a seven-story building featuring 154 apartments above approximately 10,700 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The website of Monrovia-based architecture firm Nardi Associates may offer a first glimpse of the next addition to the Downtown Los Angeles skyline. Renderings for a project called “Olympic Tower,” appear to portray the highly anticipated mixed-use development slated for the current home of the Downtown Car Wash at Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Plans filed last month with the City of Los Angeles indicate that the project would consist of a high-rise structure featuring 374 residential units, a 373-key hotel, approximately 33,500 square feet of commercial office space, a 10,800-square-foot conference center and over 65,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

Downtown residents, community leaders, greenspace advocates and members of the media braved the cold yesterday morning to celebrate the opening of the Hope Street Parklet — South Park’s first and Downtown Los Angeles’ third. Located on South Hope Street just south of 11th Street, the parklet fronts a parking garage that was recently reonvated to include new ground-level retail space and across the street from tthe venerable Desmond Warehouse, now home to the offices of AEG Live.

City Century, LLC - a subsidiary of the Shanghai-based real estate firm ShengLong Group - has officially filed plans for its first residential tower in South Park. According to a case filing from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, the proposed development at 1229 S. Grand Avenue would consist of a 24-story building featuring 161 condominiums and slightly over 2,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space. Plans also call for numerous residential amenities, including a 215-car parking garage.

After nearly two years of construction, the scaffolding is down, and the Hanover Company’s latest South Park development has finally revealed itself to the world. Hanover Olympic, located at the northeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Olive Street, consists of a seven-story edifice that will house 263 apartments and approximately 14,500 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space. Designs from TCA Architects also call for a two-and-a-half level underground garage with parking accommodations for up to 250 vehicles.

Nearly one year after unveiling plans for a $500-million expansion of the Marriott complex at L.A. Live, AEG has finally submitted plans to the City of Los Angeles for the new hotel tower. As previously reported by the Los Angeles Times, the proposed development will add 755 guest rooms to the existing J.W. Marriott, creating the second-largest hotel in California with 1,756 rooms. The expansion will be linked to the existing building via a pedestrian bridge over Olympic Boulevard.

The Onni Group, a Vancouver-based real estate development firm, has started site preparation for a high-rise residential building in the South Park neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles. The project, which is replacing a .87-acre parking lot at 820 S. Olive Street, will consist of a 50-story tower featuring 583 residential units and 4,500 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space. However, permit filings from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety indicate that the project may have been scaled down to a 49-story building containing 516 dwellings.

An initial study published last week by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning (LADCP) has revealed new renderings for the Shenzhen Hazens Real Estate Group’s proposed $700-million mixed-use complex in Downtown Los Angeles. The development, which is slated for an L-shaped 2.7-acre property at 1020 S. Figueroa Street, would consist of three high-rise buildings featuring 650 condominiums, a 300-room W Hotel and approximately 80,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

This week, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee (DLANC) will review plans for Olympic Tower, a skyline-altering development slated for the current home of the neighborhood’s most notorious car wash. Developer Ben Neman’s plan for the nearly one-acre property at Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street calls for the construction of a 57-story high-rise structure, which at 740 feet in height, would become the city’s sixth tallest building.

Longstanding efforts to add new hotel stock near the Los Angeles Convention Center may receive a boost from an upcoming project. According to a memo from the Los Angeles City Council’s Economic Development Committee, a new proposal for a mixed-use complex would bring approximately 1,000 hotel rooms to a parking lot on Pico Boulevard between Figueroa and Flower Streets. The project, which would take the form of two high-rise towers, would also include ground-level retail space, parking, sky lobbies and amenities for hotel guests.