Development WELCOME HOME

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.

Eight years after purchasing the Providence Tarzana Medical Center, nonprofit service provider Providence Health & Systems has filed plans with the City of Los Angeles to begin capital improvements at the 245-bed hospital. According to a case filing from the Department of City Planning, the Renton, Washington-based company is planning to add a new patient wing and parking garage to the 43-year-old facility, which is located just south of the Ventura Freeway.

According to a report from the Argonaut, El Segundo-based developers Continental Development Corporation and Mar Ventures, Inc. have banded together to build a new creative office campus in Del Rey. The proposed development, called the Alla Road Creative Campus, would consist of a trio of two-story buildings near the western terminus of the Marina Freeway. Plans call for approximately 155,000 square feet of office space, in addition to a one-acre outdoor courtyard and a parking garage for 600 vehicles.

A draft environmental impact report published by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning offers new details about Junction Gateway, an upcoming residential and retail development in northwest Silver Lake. The proposed mixed-use complex from Los Angeles-based Frost/Chaddock Developers would consist of three separate buildigns at different sites along Sunset Boulevard. In total, the project would encompass nearly 300 apartments - including 27 affordable housing units - and 17,000 square feet of pedestrian-oriented shops and restaurants.