Development WELCOME HOME

With the end of 2014 fast approaching, construction has finally started on one of Hollywood’s most controversial developments. Earlier this month, the J.H. Snyder Company broke ground on 1601 Vine Street, an eight-story office tower slated for the former site of Molly’s Burgers. The $70 million project, designed by architecture firm Gensler, will consist of approximately 110,000 square feet of Class-A office space, a 2,000-square-foot ground-level retail stall, and 174 underground parking spaces.

With Yahoo! on the cusp of signing a 130,000-square-foot lease in the under-construction Collective campus, Tishman Speyer Properties is now forging ahead with plans for their remaining Playa Vista real estate. According to a November case filing from the Department of City Planning, the New York-based developer intends to construct two low-rise office buildings adjacent to Playa Vista Central Park. The first, a six-story structure, would rise from a nearly four-acre site at 12126 West Waterfront Drive.

Only from above can one fully appreciate the massive amount of construction underway throughout the Playa Vista neighborhood. The thousand-acre expanse, formerly a component of the Howard Hughes aerospace empire, is now giving birth to creative office space, pricey chain retailers, and thousands of luxury apartments, condominiums, and single-family homes. Take a quick photo tour through phase two of the planned community, from a vantage point high up in the Westchester Bluffs.

Earlier this month, puzzling news emerged from Downtown Los Angeles. Figueroa Central, the long awaited mixed-use companion to LA Live, was simultaneously upsized and downsized. Revised plans from Oceanwide Real Estate Group added a third tower to the development, but also featured less than half of the 1,200 residential units permitted under the original project. Now, a document from the DLANC’s Planning and Land Use Committee is here to answer all of your burning questions.

The Arts District continues to shed its industrial past, as yet another adaptive reuse project joins an already considerable list of proposed developments. According to an October case filing with the Department of City Planning, a 280,000-square-foot warehouse complex at 2060 E. 7th Street is slated for a mixed-use conversion. Plans filed with the city call for 40,000 square feet of retail and 20,000 square feet of restaurant uses within the development.

A draft environmental impact report published by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning has revealed new details about Martin Expo Town Center (METC), a large mixed-use development proposed in West Los Angeles. The project, designed by architecture firm Togawa Smith Martin, would create three low-rise and mid-rise structures with a combination of office, residential and retail uses. Located at 1201 W. Olympic Boulevard, METC would rise from the current home of Martin Cadillac, just one block north of a future Expo Line Station at Bundy Drive.

More development is slated for the freshly rebranded Sawtelle Japantown. According to an early December case filing from the Department of City Planning, a new residential-retail complex is proposed for the corner lot at 1854 South Sawtelle Boulevard. Plans call for a five-story structure, consisting of 23 apartments, two ground-floor live-work units, four above-grade parking levels and two underground parking levels. The new building would replace a century-old bungalow, one of the few remaining single-family dwellings along the bustling commercial corridor.

In Culver City, construction is wrapping up on the Oliver Apartments, a residential-retail complex from the Vancouver-based Bastion Development Corporation. Standing three stories at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Marcasel Avenue, the building will include 30 one-and-two-bedroom apartments above 8,700 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. The low-rise structure, clad mostly in smooth-finish stucco and wood paneling, features private balconies on three sides. Bastion’s project is slated for completion in March 2015.

A draft environmental impact report recently published by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning has unveiled a new look for the proposed Hollywood Cherokee Apartments. The mixed-use development from Los Angeles-based Champion Real Estate is slated for a 1.14-acre parking lot located just north of Hollywood Boulevard, between Las Palmas and Cherokee Avenues. The Hollywood Cherokee complex entails a four-to-six-story building, featuring 224 studio, one-and-two-bedroom units above nearly 1,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space.

Santa Monica Boulevard’s nascent construction boom is slowly pushing eastward. According to a case filing from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, a new low-rise apartment complex is slated for a nearly half-acre property at 11407 West Santa Monica Boulevard. The project calls for a five-story building, featuring 51 residential units above 1,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space. An unspecified number of units would be reserved as either affordable or low-income housing.