Big Reef project south of 10 freeway is for sale

The owners of an enormous and potentially pioneering development formerly known as both The Reef and SoLA Village are looking to either sell the property or find someone to help them develop it.

“The owner is open to different types of [ownership] structures,” Laurie Lustig-Bower, an executive vice president of CBRE Group Inc., told the Los Angeles Times. CBRE is representing PHR LA Mart, which owns the project and the adjacent Reef Building.

The change-up comes after the settlement of a lawsuit brought by community activists who sought more affordable housing in the project. The terms of the lawsuit’s settlement include increasing the number of affordable units from 25 to 70—less than 5 percent of the total units.

The project was approved by the Los Angeles City Council last year over the objections of many of those same activists and residents, who argue the new, almost entirely market-rate housing development will drive up housing prices in the working class and low-income neighborhood.

The development would transform a parking lot and warehouse at South Broadway and Washington Boulevard, south of the 10 freeway, into an instant mini-neighborhood with 1,444 condos and apartments, a grocery store, a gallery, a 19-story hotel with 208 rooms, and more than 67,000 square feet of shops and restaurants in buildings ranging in height from 77 to 420 feet.

The settlement of the lawsuit means the fully approved project is free to move forward.

Brokers are marketing the $1.2-billion project—now called Broadway Square Los Angeles—without an asking price, though Lustig-Bower says it could fetch upwards of $500 million. Bids for the project are due December 1.

• Massive mixed-use project would extend downtown L.A. building boom [LA Times]
• City Council unanimously approves controversial Reef development in South LA [Curbed LA]