After years of limited apartment availability in the Arts District, the next few years are going to see a deluge of rental units. The long and skinny One Santa Fe is slated to bring 438 apartments when it opens in 2014, and now comes word from Downtown News that it will be joined in the SCI-Arc-adjacent part of the Arts District by another 472 apartments, courtesy of Legendary Development. The massive project was entitled years ago when the property was owned by now-defunct Meruelo Maddux, and after getting a thumbs up from the local Business Improvement District last week, the developer just needs to get a new site plan approved by the city. The plan calls for a 922-space parking structure surrounded by seven "brick-clad buildings with five to six levels of apartments above street-level commercial or live/work units. The tops of the structures would be encased in metal finishes, and steel walkways would connect the buildings on the upper levels." Assuming final approvals go according to plan, construction should start by the end of the year and take three years, though a first phase with 248 apartments would open sooner.
Before Legendary took over the project, others had tried and failed to do something with the site on Third Street. LAUSD wanted a meal production facility there, and Meruelo Maddux tried to build two "Miami Beach-style condo towers." Legendary didn't get off to a promising start, either. Secretary of the Los Angeles River Artists' and Business Association Jonathan Jerald said they were "appalled" by the original "banal, boring looking design." But the neighborhood seems on board now, and the BID is supporting the site plan application.
Unfortunately we weren't able to get renderings of the no-longer-appalling project out of the developer.
· Major Apartment Complex Planned in Arts District [DN]
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