Development WELCOME HOME

Even as Metro’s bold plan for a high-rise complex atop North Hollywood Station remains dormant, other nearby property owners are picking up the development slack. Earlier this month, the Redondo Beach-based Urbanest Group filed plans with the city to construct a new residential-retail complex at 11120 West Chandler Boulevard. The proposed development would rise from a currently vacant one-acre lot, creating two five-story buildings with a cumulative 329 dwelling units and 4,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

Less than one year after unveiling substantially downsized plans for Downtown’s erstwhile Park Fifth site, developer MacFarlane Partners has opted to rework the entire project. The San Francisco-based investment management firm will give a first glimpse of the redesigned - and slightly upsized - development program to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committe this Tuesday. Like the previous Harley Ellis Devereaux-designed proposal, the retooled Park Fifth complex will consist of mid-rise and high-rise components.

As construction continues on a new subway station at the intersection of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards, a bold development scheme is in the works for an adjacent shopping complex. Capri Capital Partners, the Chicago-based owner of Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, is planning to redevelop their 43-acre property with over 2 million square feet of new office space, housing, retail space and hotel rooms. According to a master plan created by planning and design firm RAW International, the proposed development would replace a series of surface parking lots and low-rise commercial buildings which flank the mid-century shopping center.

As Playa Vista gradually booms into one of Southern California preeminent tech hubs, a new wave of multi-family residential development is flowing into the adjacent Westchester neighborhood. According to a document from the Neighborhood Council of Westchester and Playa Del Rey, the latest example of this burgeoning trend is slated for an approximately two-acre parcel at 6733 South Sepulveda Boulevard. Land owner 6733 So. Sepulveda Blvd. Associates recently presented plans to the council’s Planning and Land Use Committee for a new five-story apartment complex on the property.

Work has finally begun on 5550 Hollywood Boulevard, a long-awaited mixed-use complex from developer Sonny Astani. Designs from Los Angeles-based PSL Architects call for a six-story structure containing 280 apartments and slightly over 12,600 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The project will preserve and incorporate Falcon Studios, a two-story brick structure built in the 1920s which once served as a rehearsal studio for performers in Hollywood’s golden age. The $100 million development had previously faced opposition from two clients of attorney Robert Silverstein, both of whom sought to overturn 5550 Hollywood’s approvals from the City Planning Commission.

Next week, the DLANC’s Planning and Land Use Committee is scheduled to take a closer look at Fig South, the glassy high-rise project slated for the (other) parking lot across the street from Staples Center. The twin 36-story towers are being designed by architecture firm Harley Ellis Devereaux; artistic renderings depict glassy, elliptical shaped buildings with swooping rooflines. Both towers would rise 400 feet above street level, the maximum height allowed for the property at 1200 S.

In what amounts to an excellent Christmas for Downtown boosters, work will soon begin on multiple new high-rise buildings in the South Park neighborhood. Earlier in December, Oceanwide Real Estate Group started clearing the large surface parking lot at 1101 Flower Street, future site of Fig Central. Now, after much speculation, the Los Angeles Times reports that the long-stalled mixed-use complex is on track for an early 2015 groundbreaking date. The $1-billion development will feature a trio of skyline-altering towers designed by architecture firm RTKL.

During the course of Little Tokyo’s mid-20th-century urban renewal, entire city blocks were leveled to make way for modern retail and office complexes, including the Japanese Village Plaza and Paker Center. When the dust had finally settled in the 1980s, a small parking lot between Weller Court and the Kajima Building had somehow managed to escape the process almost completely untouched. Now, after sitting idle for decades, the roughly half-acre property has been enveloped by Downtown’s ongoing residential construction boom.

Last summer, Florida-based real estate investment trust Rescore purchased approximately two acres of land in Hollywood, with the intention of building a low-rise mixed-use complex. Half-a-year later, a set of environmental documents published by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning has revealed new details about the proposed development at 1311 North Cahuenga Boulevard. Designs from Nadel Architects call for a seven-story structure, spanning across two properties bounded by Cahuenga Boulevard, Cole and Fountain Avenues.

In response to the resurgent Downtown Los Angeles condo market, a new wave of for-sale housing is quietly taking off in the South Park neighborhood. On Thursday, workers installed protective fencing around the half-acre parking lot at 1050 South Grand Avenue, future home of a $100 million condominium tower from developer Trumark Urban. The 24-story building, designed by local architecture firm HasonLA, will contain 151 residential units above a retail and parking podium.