There are plans afoot for a new 40-story mixed use building next to the Spring Arcade in Downtown's Historic Core. The tower would rise on what's now a surface parking lot (of course) and would have 252 residential units, 12,000-15,000 square feet of retail space, and six floors of parking. The units will likely be rented at first, but built to condo specs. Or at least that's the latest dream of the site's owner, Australian businessman and Downtown property collector Joseph Hellen. Hellen told Downtown News that he's been trying to come up with the right project for the site for years--as recently as August 2012 he was planning a 12-story apartment building there. But now he thinks that if LA wants to be considered a "world-class city," then "it should exhibit world-class high-rises." He hired Martinez + Cutri Corporation to design the tower, which he calls a "show building for Los Angeles." There's no timetable for the project, and no entitlements yet. One thing not likely to slow it down is a loan, however, since Hellen intends to finance the project on his own. The project, which will be called the Stationer's Building (before it was a parking lot the site was home to a stationery store) joins at least two other planned towers in the immediate neighborhood--Barry Shy's 40-story SB Omega at 601 Main Street and Izek Shomof's 22-story building at Fourth and Broadway. Remember when everyone was worried developers were giving us a stumpy Downtown?
· Veteran Developer Planning 40-Story Tower for Historic Core [DN]
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