8-acre garden apartment complex in Hyde Park slated for major redevelopment

A developer filed plans with the city on Tuesday build a seven-story, 782-unit rental complex with 141 affordable units on a site which is occupied now by the 196-unit Dorset Village garden apartment complex.

The project would take advantage of the city’s Transit Oriented Communities incentives, which allow developers to build taller or more dense projects near transit as long as they include some affordable housing.

The developer of this project, which is a few blocks away from the future Hyde Park station on the Crenshaw/LAX Line, is aiming to build roughly three stories taller than usually allowed.

The property owner is listed as Dorset Village Partners LP. Planning documents do not yet list an applicant for the new apartment project.

The 28 buildings that make up the 8-acre Dorset Village complex each rise two stories high and together hold 196 units. The city’s property records database shows that the complex is rent-controlled.

Though the new, larger project will have 141 affordable units, it is unclear how many of the units on the site now would be cleared to make way for the new project.

The TOC program has come under scrutiny by some preservationists who think that it puts older rent-controlled apartments at a heightened risk of demolition.

The Dorset Village apartments were built at a cost of $1 million. When the complex opened in 1941, rents started at $38.50 a month, according to an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times from the same year. “They’re really something!” the advertisement proclaimed.

Urbanize LA reported that the garden apartment complex was “featured prominently in [Nipsey] Hussle’s 2014 showcase of the Crenshaw neighborhood and served as the backdrop of the music video for ‘Question #1.’” Hussle, a musician and activist, was killed last month near the southwest corner of Slauson and Crenshaw.

Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that it is unclear how many units would be cleared out for the new project.