South Park WELCOME HOME

Although Mack Urban’s upcoming South Park developments bring the exciting potential for new high-rises near the AT&T Center, the project also features a substantial low-rise component along Pico Boulevard. Here is a first look, thanks to a presentation from the DLANC website. Set to rise on adjacent parking lots between Olive and Hill Streets, this phase of the project consists of two seven-story buildings containing 360 condominiums and approximately 6,400 square feet of ground floor commercial space.

If you count yourself as an opponent of South Park’s boxy, wood-framed building spree, read no further than this sentence. According to plans filed earlier this month with LADCP, yet another residential-retail complex is proposed across the street from the LA Convention Center. Located at 1400 South Figueroa Street, the project’s case filing calls for a seven-story structure, containing 106 dwelling units above street level commercial space. Additionally, the low-rise development would offer a subterranean parking garage and an unspecified amount of live-work units.

Although likely years away from the start of construction, the Shanghai-based Greenland Group is already working on plans for the second half of their ambitious Metropolis development. According to a memo released by CRA/LA earlier this month, phase two of the $1 billion project tentatively calls for two high-rise towers that would comprise over 1.4 million square feet of floor area. The first structure, an approximately 50-story tower, would stand flush with Francisco Street and consist of 510 condominium dwellings above a parking podium.

Last summer, SB Properties overlord Barry Shy announced bold plans for a slew of new projects that would erect high-rise towers in and around Downtown’s Historic Core. Earlier this month, the veteran developer officially put words into action, submitting plans for a 32-story condominium tower on a parking lot behind Broadway’s popular Ace Hotel. Located at 920 South Hill Street, the building would contain 239 residential units, ground level commercial stalls and a parking garage.

The crane may have just come down last month for Williams & Dame’s Courtyard Marriott/Residence Inn, but construction workers have wasted little time in finishing up the cladding on the building’s eastern facade. The 23-story tower, designed by GBD Architects, will create 393 new hotel rooms when it opens in summer 2014. While the Marriott Tower was Downtown’s lone high-rise bright spot when it broke ground in March 2012, an array of new and revived projects have emerged in South Park during the past year.

Here’s a better look at the KTGY Group’s design for the proposed Olympic & Olive mixed-use development, with credit to the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee. The seven-story project from Lennar Multifamily Investors would contain 201 apartments and just over 4,000 square feet of ground floor retail to South Park. Not to mention a reasonably sized 228 car underground garage, supplemented by 221 bike parking spaces. As mentioned in previous coverage of this project, Olympic & Olive would fall just inside the eastern boundary of Councilman Jose Huizar’s proposed interim control ordinance prohibiting wood-frame construction.

Scaffolding is coming down, and the stucco is coming out on the first phase of Century West Partners’ Avant mixed-use development. The GMP Architects designed project, which began construction in September 2012, will bring just over 240 apartments and 11,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space to the growing South Park neighborhood in 2014. A second phase of the project broke ground earlier this year, and will create an extra 193 units and 9,500 square feet of retail by early 2015.

San Francisco based Carmel Partners made headlines when they restarted the 8th and Grand development, and now they have plans to give their 700-unit monolith a glassy high-rise neighbor. 801 Olive Street, which was first spotted moving through City Planning back in October, would stand 27-stories and approximately 317 feet tall. The GMP Architects designed tower would contain 363 apartments and 10,000 square feet of ground level commercial space. Residential units would rise above a five-story parking podium, which stretches south from the intersection of 8th and Olive Streets.

At long last, we catch a glimpse of LA Live’s proposed Renaissance Hotel, which was announced by Williams & Dame Development earlier this year. The $200 million project will rise 21 stories at the northeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Georgia Street, creating 450 upscale hotel rooms within easy walking distance of Staples Center and the LA Convention Center. The hotel will provide guests with event space, recreational amenities, restaurants and bars.

Talk about ending 2013 with a bang. The Vancouver-based Onni Group has been bullish about Downtown for quite some time, but recent events indicate that their vision for neighborhood’s future is literally sky-high. Earlier this month, the Canadian developer submitted plans to the city for four mixed-use towers, one of which would be Los Angeles’ tallest residential building. On the parking lot of the 1212 Flower office building, Onni would construct two high-rise towers containing 730 condo dwellings and over 7,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space.