Strange as it is to say, it seems like developers have recently zeroed in on the residential neighborhood south of Wilshire Boulevard’s Lafayette Park. Last month brought the news that a new 60-unit apartment building would be replacing a surface parking lot on Sunset Place. Now, plans submitted to the city indicate that a vacant lot on 7th Street will give rise to a much larger mixed-use complex. Located just west of Hoover Street, the new six-story building would consist of 158 apartment units above an uspecified amount of street level commercial space. Occupying the majority of a city block, this project joins a wide variety of low-rise apartment proposals which have sprung up in the Westlake neighborhood over the past twelve months. While building so much market rate residential in a currently low-income neighborhood may raise some eyebrows, similar developments were once a questionable proposition in Downtown. With enviable transit access and gentrification bearing down on all sides, this could finally be Westlake’s time to shine. Other projects recently constructed nearby include Seventh & Coronado, a self described “68-unit, transit-oriented, community of affordable housing with social service space for large families.”