Steven Sharp WELCOME HOME

South Park’s high-rise construction boom has officially jumped the Harbor Freeway. Yesterday, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles for a new development which would replace a motel in City West with a mixed-use tower. The residential-retail complex - slated for a .76-acre site at 1135-1147 West 7th Street - would feature 223 market rate residential units, 18 affordable housing units and roughly 6,900 square feet of ground-level commercial floor area.

Construction on Valencia, a new residential-retail complex from developer Sonny Astani, continues to progress in Westlake. The $60 million mixed-use development, located at 1501 Wilshire Boulevard, will eventually consist of a six-story edifice featuring 218 residential units, 4,400 square feet of ground-level retail space and 258 underground parking spaces. Plans call for a mixture of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments with amenities such as a gym, a swimming pool and landscaped interior courtyards.

A presentation from the California Strategic Growth Council’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program has revealed a new rendering for a proposed transit-oriented development (TOD) above Metro’s Westlake/MacArthur Park Station. The nearly $50 million project, which is being developed by McCormack Baron Salazar (MBS), would consist of a five-story structure containing 82 residential units, 83 underground parking spaces and approximately 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. The proposed building would rise atop the subway station’s existing north entrance, which would be closed and replaced with a new portal on Westlake Avenue.

According to a document from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the nonprofit LINC Housing Corporation intends to build a new multifamily residential development in Westlake. The project, dubbed Mosaic Gardens at Westlake, would rise from an underutilized property at 1416 West Beverly Boulevard. Plans call for a low-rise structure featuring a total of 125 residential units, including 63 units set aside for formerly homeless households. Prior to the recession, the approximately 1.25-acre development site was slated for a larger seven-story complex which would have featured 153 dwelling units.

Jamison Services, one of Southern California’s largest office landlords, recently filed plans with the City of Los Angeles to convert two of its numerous Wilshire Boulevard office buildings for residential use. The first of these properties is a 13-story tower located near MacArthur Park. A case filing from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning indicates that the renovated building at 2500 Wilshire Boulevard would contain 248 residential units, in lieu of its current 230,000 square feet of office space.

In the latest example of investment dollars spilling outside the Central City freeway ring, construction has started on another mixed-use development in Westlake. Last month, Los Angeles-based Canfield Development broke ground on a low-rise apartment building on a vacant half-acre lot at 1329-1419 West Seventh Street. The residential-retail complex, first reported in 2013, will consist of a seven-story structure featuring 87 studio, one-and-two-bedroom apartments above nearly 1,000 square feet of ground-level retail space.

As the supply of unclaimed parking lots decreases in Downtown Los Angeles, many developers have begun looking to the neighborhood’s fringe for new infill opportunities. During the past year, multiple projects have emerged in once unfathomable locations outside the Central City freeway ring, including proposed high-rise complexes in Chinatown and South Los Angeles. However, the chief beneficiary of this shift is undoubtedly the long downtrodden Westlake neighborhood. The predominantly immigrant community, once considered “Los Angeles’ answer to the Champs-Élysées,” is now experiencing a resurgence in commercial and market-rate residential development.

According to a Facebook post from earlier this month, the Skid Row Housing Trust has broken ground on the Six Apartments, a new 52-unit affordable housing complex in the Westlake neighborhood. Keeping in trend with several of SRHT’s other recent developments, the project packs quite a bit of architectural punch. Designed by Brooks + Scarpa Architects, renderings portray a white hued low-rise structure, featuring a street facing urban window and lush ground level landscaping.

After more than a year of inactivity, mixed-use construction is finally returning to City West. In the shadow of Good Samaritan Hospital, two developers are now in the midst of site preparation for a pair of residential complexes that will infuse the Westlake neighborhood with more than 800 new market rate apartment units. On a 4.1 acre property immediately northeast of the hospital, the Vancouver-based Holland Partner Group recently commenced work on a long delayed $125 million mixed-use development.

The resurgent Westlake neighborhood is about to get another influx of market rate units, this time courtesy of Sonny Astani. As reported by the Downtown News, the Beverly Hills-based developer plans to start construction later this year on Valencia, a mixed-use development to be located at 1501 Wilshire Boulevard. Designed by Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects, the six-story building will contain 218 apartment units, 18 of which shall be reserved for low income households.