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Arts District's One Santa Fe to Break Ground This Month

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Smell that? There's action in the air this January and the latest movement is at One Santa Fe, the sinewy Arts District mixed-use project that's been in the works for half a decade now. We've been teased before, sure, but a press release out today says that Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund (Magic Johnson is a partner) has "closed the financing gap for the four-acre project" and that ground will break this month. The $160 million One Santa Fe was designed by architect Michael Maltzan and will sit on a Metro-owned site along Santa Fe Ave., between First and Fourth Streets, across from SCI-Arc. The project will be six stories and have 438 apartments (20 percent affordable), 50,000 square feet of public outdoor space, and 78,620 of office and retail space. And who knows how firm the retail plans are, but they're sure to get Downtown worked up: the project is "currently planned to feature an outdoor terrace that provides views of downtown and the river, along with a grocery store, additional retail, an art gallery, a multi-use theater and a garden on the ground floor."

The developers have a 78 year ground lease with Metro, which is considering linking the project up with a new Red Line station. Metro also plans to lease about 35,000 square feet of commercial space back from One Santa Fe.

The press release says that CJUF "has provided preferred equity capital to a joint venture among The McGregor Company, Polis Builders Ltd. and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group (UIG) to jumpstart the development." It adds that executive architects KTGY Group have already finished construction drawings and that contractor Bernards Brothers Inc. has started predevelopment work at the site. So while we once heard that One Santa Fe would be finished "in the distant-sounding year of 2010," things don't look too bad for the latest projected completion date of December 2014.


· Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund Invests in Downtown Los Angeles Mixed-Use Project [MarketWatch]
· City Council Approves Arts District's One Santa Fe [Curbed LA]

One Santa Fe

Santa Fe Ave. & First St., Los Angeles, CA 90013