Steven Sharp WELCOME HOME

Though its June 2018 opening date looms on the distant horizon, few details regarding the East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor (ESFVTC) are set in stone. The project, partially funded through $170 million in Measure R revenue, will improve public transportation along a nine-mile swath between the Orange Line busway and Sylmar. The proposed transit line would serve an area which is home to over 460,000 people–a larger total than either the cities of Atlanta and Miami.

The explosive growth of Downtown Los Angeles continues to spread west across the Harbor Freeway. Yesterday, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles to construct a residential-retail complex in the City West neighborhood. The project - slated for a one-acre property bounded by Hartford Avenue, 5th and Witmer Streets - would consist of an eight-story, 174,000-square-foot building featuring 182 market rate apartments and 36 units of affordable housing. The proposal is contingent on a series of density bonus incentives requested by the developer in exchange for providing low-income housing.

Two years ago, developer TRCF Redondo, LLC opened a pair of mid-range hotels adjacent to the San Diego Freeway. That duo will soon become a trio. The Utah-based firm is now in the midst of construction on a third hotel on the property, which is located between Marine and Inglewood Avenues, adjacent to the Green Line’s Redondo Beach Station. Plans call for a 180-key Homewood Suites by Hilton, which would also include a park and a small amount of meeting space.

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.

Later this week, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission will review a proposal for a new mixed-use development on the western edge of Koreatown. The project from local real estate firm Jamison Services would rise from a one-acre property at 3980 Wilshire Boulevard, replacing a surface parking lot and a series of low-rise buildings. Plans call for the construction of a seven-story building which would feature 228 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, approximately 17,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking accommodations for 340 vehicles and 267 bicycles.

The hodgepodge of strip malls and car dealerships south of Downtown Los Angeles is scheduled to begin a long-awaited makeover this summer through the MyFigueroa streetscape project. Now, a 1960s motel near the University of Southern California is slated to join in on the action. Yesterday, El Segundo-based Vista Investments, LLC filed plans with the City of Los Angeles to construct a dual-branded hotel at 3031 S. Figueroa Street. The proposed development would consist of a seven-story building feature 275 guest rooms.

An automobile maintenance business in Echo Park is slated to give way for a multifamily residential development. Last week, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles to construct a mixed-use building on a .31-acre site at 1301 W. Sunset Boulevard. Plans call for a low-rise structure featuring 45 residential units - including four reserved very-low income households - and nearly 1,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space. A case filing from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning links the project to a principal at Beverly Hills-based real estate firm ETCO Homes.

Last week, the Los Angeles County Department of Works completed its $14.5-million upgrade of Marina del Rey’s Oxford Basin. The project installed a new walking path around the perimeter of the lagoon, as well as landscaping, informational signage, fencing, lighting and observation areas. It also implemented functional improvements, including the removal of sediment, a new circulation berm and native landscaping. To see the results for yourself, look below.

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.

Last week, the skyline-altering makeover of the Century Plaza Hotel took a giant leap forward. According the Real Deal L.A., the redevelopment of the 50-year-old hotel by real estate investment firm Woodbridge Capital Partners secured its construction financing last week. The $2.5-billion project, designed by the architecture firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, will add twin 46-story towers on the property at the intersection of Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars.