"Whoa" comes to mind at these very tall designs for SoLA Village, the massive, $1-billion development that could be heading for two parking lots near the Reef Building (formerly known as the LA Mart), just outside of Downtown in Historic South-Central. The 1.66-million-square-foot development is just south of Washington Boulevard on either side of Broadway—an area that, in sharp contrast to its neighbors just north of the freeway (South Park, DTLA), has been pretty overlooked in terms of big-time fancy development. We just reported that the project, being developed by the Reef people, would include a 208-room hotel, nearly 1,500 residential units, retail, restaurants and bars, and a grocery store, which is pretty big news for this part of town. Today, the ante's been upped. The hotel, we now learn, will be 19 stories tall. And the majority of the 1,449 residential units will be spread across two condo towers of 32 and 35 stories!, according to the LA Times.
SoLA Village's condo towers will hold 900 units; there will also be 549 apartments (in low- and mid-rise buildings; sorry renters), including 21 live/work spaces that will likely be aimed at the creative types that the art- and design-focused Reef Building caters to. (Even at this early stage, developers are planning for an art gallery.) There will also be a heaping helping of outdoor space in the form of public plazas, courtyards, and patios to entice pedestrians. As predicted, developers are hoping to promote usage of the nearby Blue Line on Washington Boulevard, doing so through a bike share program and dedicated bike spaces for apartment- and condo-dwellers.
Of course, construction on a project this enormous will likely take place in stages, and it still has to actually be approved. SoLA says that they're expecting the development process to take "about three years." While they didn't say how long the construction phases expected to take, they did mention that the hotel would probably be one of the first buildings to rise.
There's no mention of affordable housing for this low-income neighborhood, but a rep for Councilmember Curren D. Price, who reps the area, did say he saw this development as a chance for the area to become a "lower-cost alternative" to Downtown.
· Gamechanging Mixed-User/Hotel/Grocery Store Planned For Historic South-Central [Curbed LA]
· Mixed-User Headed For Giant Chair Lot By South LA's LA Mart [Curbed LA]
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