Major redevelopment of Panorama City’s Montgomery Ward site approved

Redevelopment can move forward on a vacant Panorama City Montgomery Ward site. The Los Angeles City Council approved the project today, with a 13-0 vote.

The development will demolish three vacant buildings and parking lots on the 8.9-acre site at Roscoe Boulevard just west of Van Nuys Boulevard. A new, seven-building complex will rise there, holding 623 apartments, 60,000 square feet of stores and restaurants, and a 17,000-square-foot landscaped plaza.

Residents of the neighborhood are welcoming the changes to come.

“We desperately need the old Montgomery site renovated,” said Gregory Wilkinson, who chairs the Panorama City Neighborhood Council, in May, when the project went before the city planning commission. It received glowing reviews from the commissioners as well.

There’s no announced timeline for the project.

Farther south on Van Nuys Boulevard, near the Amtrak station, developer Izek Shomof is planning an adaptive reuse project that would convert a Welton Beckett-designed office building into housing and retail.

• Commmission backs major redevelopment of Panorama City’s old Montgomery Ward [Curbed LA]
• New renderings of Panorama City’s giant ICON retail, housing project [Curbed LA]