Hoping to increase the pedestrian pleasures of downtown Santa Monica, the city last week paid $42.5 million for a 52,500-square-foot property at 4th and Arizona, near the Promenade, reports the Santa Monica Daily Press. Currently housing a "bland" Bank of America, the parcel "could become a mixed-use development that includes a large public plaza or park," City Councilman Kevin McKeown told the Press. The city already owns 67,500 square feet of real estate nearby on Fifth, south of Arizona, but it sounds like it's feeling squeezed. "So long as the small individual properties surrounding the promenade were individually developed, we'd never get the integrated planning it will take to create a larger public space," McKeown said, according to the paper, which also notes that "the transaction is likely to be the last large purchase City Hall will make in the downtown area."
· City Acquires More Downtown Real Estate [SMDP]
· Santa Monica Approves Field Operations [Curbed LA]
· LA Area's Fourth Proposed Freeway Park Gets Push [Curbed LA]
Filed under:
Loading comments...