Development WELCOME HOME

In February 2013, news emerged that IMT Capital was planning a mixed-use development on a Sherman Oaks parcel which formerly housed the headquarters of the Sunkist Growers Cooperative. Just over one year later, the Valley Village-based developer has finally submitted their project to the city for approval. According to a recent case filing from LADCP, plans for the 8.5 acre site call for 298 residential units and an unspecified amount of ground floor commercial space.

With construction now underway on a new, USC-funded Fire Station at the corner of Hoover and 30th Streets, something had to be done with LAFD Station 15’s current digs on Jefferson Boulevard. It appears that USC has found that something. According to an environmental report released by LADCP, the university proposes the relocation of the current station building to a vacant lot near the Shrine Auditorium. There it would serve as a studio annex to the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts, located at the corner of Figueroa and 32nd Streets.

The Warner Center 2035 Plan was designed to transform the sleepy business district into an active mixed-use community. In a positive sign for the neighborhood’s future, developers are swooping in left and right to make this vision a reality. The latest large scale mixed-use project headed to the West Valley comes from Associated Estates Realty Group, in the form of a low-rise and mid-rise development in Warner Center’s College District. According to a document from the Woodland Hills - Warner Center Neighborhood Council, the Ohio-based developer has plans for 379 apartment units and 71,000 square feet of office space, to be located at 21221 Oxnard Street.

Jam packed Koreatown is about to become a little bit more dense, with a new residential project slated for a property located just south of 1st Street. According to plans recently filed with the city, a five-story, 40-unit condominium development is proposed for the parcel at 111 South Mariposa Avenue. The project’s LADCP case filing indicates that the building would provide future residents with 90 parking spaces, supplemented by a whopping total of five bicycle parking stalls.

Despite being home to the United States’ busiest container port, the waterfront community of San Pedro has long been isolated from Los Angeles County’s Metro Rail network. Two members of the LA City Council are trying to change that. Yesterday, Councilmemembers Tom LaBonge (4th District) and Jose Buscaino (15th District) introduced a motion which requests that Metro report on the feasibility of a new light rail line connecting the Wilmington/San Pedro area to the Blue Line.

From the ashes of blighted Marlton Square rises a new medical office building, courtesy of healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente. Two years ago, the Oakland-based nonprofit announced plans to construct a new outpatient facility on an 8.6 acre parcel near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Marlton Avenue. Now, an environmental report just released by LADCP has finally revealed all of the juicy details. Known by the glamorous title of “Kaiser Permanente Outpatient Medical Facility - Baldwin Hills MOB,” the project offers a four-story, 105,000 square foot building, surrounded by surface parking lots and a landscaped central plaza.

South of the Downtown freeway ring, blighted properties flanking the light rail Blue Line are beginning to catch overflow from South Park’s recent development binge. Renderings were unveiled last year for the Grand Metropolitan, a proposed residential-retail complex near LATTC. Now, a document from the Los Angeles City Council indicates that development may also be coming for a cluster of parcels adjacent to the Reef Building, a 12-story structure located at 1933 S.

According to pictures sent in by an e-mail tipster, a small church near the border of Koreatown and Pico Union was recently demolished, making way for a 40-unit affordable housing development known as Vermont Manzanita. The apartment complex is being developed by the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (WHCHC), and will reserve fifteen of its units for at-risk families with children under the age of five. The developer has partnered with the Children’s Institute, which shall act as lead service provider for future tenants.

In packed urban environments such as Koreatown, the lack of easily buildable land often forces new developments to take creative measures. Case in point: the nondescript parking garage at the northeast corner of 6th Street and Kenmore Avenue. Already stuffed to the brim with ground floor commercial tenants, a developer now plans to construct additional floors atop the existing four-story structure, creating 53 apartment dwellings. The new residential community proposes a variety of open space amenities, including a rec-room, community room, and courtyards for each additional floor.

Nine months after we last stopped by, Redondo Beach’s new Marine Avenue hotels are open for business. Consisting of a 147-room Hilton Garden Inn and a 172-room Marriott Residence Inn, the low-rise structures were developed by TRCF Redondo, a Utah-based limited liability corporation. Designed by the Denver-based Allred Architectural Group, the project occupies the former site of miniature golf course, and lies directly in-between the 405 Freeway and the Harbor Subdivision rail right-of-way.