Mixed-Use Apartments in Seven Stories Slated For South Park

Two weeks after announcing a big Hollywood project, Beverly Hills-based developer Sonny Astani has more big news: he's purchased a 117,500 square foot parking lot in South Park, with plans to build a two-phased development with 640 apartments and 42,500 square feet of retail--the project will be split into a 300-unit building (going up first) and a 340-unit building. The LA Times says both buildings will be seven stories tall. Astani paid $250 million $29 million for the parking lot, which he purchased from the State Bar of California; the agency used the parking lot for their offices at the nearby AT&T Center, but recently announced they're buying an office building on Figueroa, currently undergoing renovations, with plans to move their LA-based staff there. Astani's new parking lot, bounded by Olive, Grand, Pico, and Twelfth Street, is "the last unspoken acreage in the South Park area of downtown which is shaping up nicely as a live/work neighborhood that is close enough to USC," Astani said in a statement. He's hoping to start work on the project in the next year.
· State Bar property sale opens door for downtown apartments [LA Times]
· Sonny Astani Archives [Curbed LA]