South Park WELCOME HOME

Today, Holland Partner Group will hold an official groundbreaking ceremony for its latest mixed-use development in Downtown Los Angeles. Located at the corner of 9th and Figueroa Streets in South Park, the project consists of a 28-story, LEED-Silver tower which will feature 341 apartments and approximately 11,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Plans also call for a rooftop amenity deck, a three-level underground garage and a small park. The 312-foot tall building, designed by architecture firms Gensler and the Preston Partnership, is the long-delayed follow-up to Apex, an adjacent high-rise apartment tower completed in 2012.

This past Saturday, J.T. Wimsatt granted us an inside look at construction on 820 Olive Street, a 49-story high-rise development now underway in Downtown Los Angeles. Between 8:00 am and 5:30 pm, a 50-man crew worked with four pumps to pour approximately 4,600 cubic yards of concrete, or 460 truck loads. This averaged out to approximately 537 cubic yards per hour. 820 Olive Street, also known as 825 Hill Street, will include a total of 516 dwelling units and 4,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

Holland Partner Group (HPG) continues its construction binge in Downtown Los Angeles, with yet another residential tower slated to break ground today in South Park. The Vancouver, Washington-based company’s latest development - slated for a half-acre site bordered by by Figueroa, 9th and Flower Streets - will be a 28-story, LEED-Silver building which will feature 341 apartments above a three-level underground parking garage. The project, known as Apex II, will also include approximately 11,600 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, a rooftop amenity deck and a small park.

Nearly six months after breaking ground in the Historic Core, Onni Group is prepared to take its latest high-rise development into the sky. Last week, crews began laying rebar for the foundation a 49-story tower at 820 S. Olive Street, which is replacing a nearly one-acre surface parking lot. When completed, the project will feature 516 dwelling units above 4,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The tower, which is being designed by the Canadian architect Chris Dikeakos, will rise to an architectural peak of 637 feet, becoming the tallest residential building in the City of Los Angeles.

An article in the Los Angeles Business Journal has offered a first look at Fig + Pico, a proposed hotel and retail complex in Downtown Los Angeles. The project, which is being developed by the New York-based Lightstone Group, would rise from an approximately 1.15-acre site fronting Pico Boulevard, Figueroa and Flower Streets. According to plans filed with the City of Los Angeles, the project would include a total of 1,100 guest rooms, which would be operated under three different hotel brands.

One year after we last dropped by, take a second look at Pico Boulevard’s mixed-use building boom in Downtown Los Angeles. The Project at Pico Between Olive and Hill Streets, vertical construction is nearing completion for a two-building development by a joint venture between real estate firm Mack Urban and engineering giant AECOM. The project, designed by the architecture firms A.C. Martin and Togawa Smith Martin, consists of two seven-story structures that will feature 360 residential units above approximatley 6,400 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Four months away from its reopening date, Downtown’s Hotel Figueroa has provided a sneak peak at the results of its $30-million renovation. The building, which dates back 90 years, is in the midst of a year-long remodel which is restoring its common areas and approximately 270 guest rooms to their original Spanish Mediterranean decor. The project is being carried out by a joint venture between Green Oak Real Estate and Urban Lifestyle Hotels, which purchased the property for $65 million in 2014.

The adaptive reuse of a vintage office building in Downtown Los Angeles is beginning to show results. The Freehand Los Angeles, a $40-million undertaking by the Sydell Group, is repurposing the 13-story Commercial Exchange Building at the intersection of 8th and Olive Streets. The former office building, built in 1924, will feature 226 guest rooms and ancillary uses above ground-floor restaurant space. Under designs from Killefer Flammang Architects, the adaptive reuse project will offer a mixture of traditional hotel rooms and hostel-type accommodations.

Metro’s Blue and Expo Lines approach their terminus in Downtown Los Angeles via at-grade tracks through the South Park neighborhood. For a quarter-century, those tracks have been flanked by an assortment of surface parking lots and industrial buildings. Not for much longer. Yesterday, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles to replace four small warehouses at 1370-1418 S. Flower Street with a mixed-use development. According to a case filing from the Department of City Planning, the proposed seven-story development would feature 147 apartments on its upper floors.

This morning, crews began stripping away a surface parking lot in Downtown Los Angeles, signaling the start of construction for the second phase of a $750-million mixed-use development. Mack Urban, a Los Angeles-based real estate firm, has teamed with the engineering and construction giant AECOM to develop a series of high-rise buildings on underutilized properties in the South Park neighborhood. At 12th Street and Grand Avenue, plans call for a 37-story structure containing 512 residential units, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a parking garage for 752 vehicles.