That's Amore! Palmer Looks to Add Tower, Another Tuscan

Developer Geoffrey Palmer is looking to extend his collection of faux Tuscan-themed buildings past downtown, and towards USC with his planned Lorenzo, a proposed two-development project on Flower Street near West Adams and 23rd. Everyone first heard about this project way back in June 2008--at that point, it was supposed to consist of a Tuscan building and a 50-story glass and steel luxury rental tower. It looks the tower got downsized a bit, as it's now 44 stories (by way of comparison, the new Ritz-Carlton in downtown is 54 stories), but the Tuscan is still on the table. Additionally, a skybridge would connect the two sites. Everyone knows Palmer just loves himself some skybridge. Additionally, the just-released draft environmental impact review report also states that Palmer is looking to take advantage of SB1818, which allows for greater density in exchange for offering affordable housing, slightly ironic given his unwillingness to do affordable housing elsewhere. But given the stallage seen at Palmer's Piero II project, you probably don't want to hold your breath on this one.

The Proposed Project would involve the development of a mixed-use project with a total of approximately 1,400 multi-family residential units (approximately 1,663,061 square feet) and ancillary common area and recreation amenities totaling approximately 65,480 square feet.

The Proposed Project would also provide approximately 34,000 square feet of retail uses, including approximately 6,000 square feet of restaurant use. More specifically, the Proposed Project would consist of two structures: a six-story building on the eastern side of Flower Street (Site A) and a 44-story building directly across from it, on the western side of Flower Street (Site B).

Site A would contain approximately 34,000 square feet of retail uses and 919 multi-family units; Site B would contain approximately 481 multi-family units. Parking for the Proposed Project would consist of approximately 3,204 spaces provided in three subterranean levels and one ground level located beneath Site A and five subterranean parking levels located beneath Site B.

· The Lorenzo Project, Draft EIR [City of LA]