North of Downtown and well-connected to transit, Chinatown is seeing a surge in interest from developers, many of whom are looking to put large projects in the neighborhood. Some proposed developments will include adaptive reuse, like the project underway now at the Capitol Milling Building, while others would involve razing existing buildings. Others, like the Gold Line-adjacent College Station project or the slim Elysian Park Lofts, would fill in vacant lots.
Here, we’ve mapped all the planned projects in Chinatown, from parks to mixed-users.
Kim Sing Theatre
Los Angeles, CA 90012
A “micro hotel” and event space is now occupying this old neighborhood theater that opened in 1926. The space is being marketed to groups (at a nightly rate of $1,199), and eventually, the owners aim to have a coffee shop and a restaurant on site.
849 North Bunker Hill
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Bunker Heights, LLC is planning to build two neighboring apartment complexes here: a six-story apartment building with 33 units at 708 South New Depot Street and a five-story building with 37 units at 849 North Bunker Hill Avenue. Combined, five of the units will be earmarked for tenants with low incomes.
Yale and Ord Street Park
Los Angeles, CA 90012
A steep plot of land at the intersection of Yale and Old streets will eventually be a new park with an open-air amphitheater, chess tables, a bamboo grove, a climbing wall, and a wheelchair-accessible pathway. AHBE Landscape Architects is designing the park, which will be geared toward multi-generational recreation.
Details for the park were first unveiled in 2014. At that time, city officials predicted the park would be open by now. Construction is now expected to begin in September.
Velvet Turtle lot
Los Angeles, CA 90012
On the site that was once home to the popular restaurant, The Velvet Turtle, Avant Development is planning to erect a seven-story building with 162 apartments and ground-floor commercial space. But the site is still empty to date.
Studio Gang-designed tower
Los Angeles, CA 90012
This Spring Street property is slated to become the site of the first Los Angeles project of the lauded Chicago-based architecture firm Studio Gang. A French developer, Compagnie de Phalsbourg, plans a 26-story building holding 300 apartments, 149 hotel rooms, shops, and public open space.
The building’s wavy, tapered design would allow for fresh air and sunlight in every unit, the architects told Curbed LA.
In January 2017, Chinatown developer Redcar had filed plans for 203 new residential units plus parking and retail to the site. They withdrew their plans in September 2017.
211 Alpine
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Downtown developer Izek Shomoff is branching out in Chinatown with this apartment complex. The seven-story project will hold 122 residential units (six of them set aside for very low-income tenants), plus 4,200 square feet of ground floor retail space, 120 parking spaces, and 124 spots for bikes.
Shomoff recently submitted plans under the city’s transit-oriented communities guidelines that seek to add 31 more apartments to the originally planned project.
Harmony
Los Angeles, CA 90012
A site that now hosts the East West Bank and a handful of storefronts could give way to a 27-story mixed-use development from Vancouver-based Townline and Forme Development. The project will hold 178 apartments with five set aside for low-income housing.
Capitol Milling Company
Los Angeles, CA 90012
The former mill complex is being transformed into a microbrewery, restaurants, and offices. Workshop Design Collective is the architect on the project, which will feature exposed brick, vaulted ceilings, and walls of glass.
Elysian Park Lofts
Los Angeles, CA 90012
An ambitious plan would bring 920 apartments, including 17 live-work units, along with 21,406 square feet of commercial space to a long, slim property that curves around the northern end of the LA State Historic Park, between the park and Broadway. At its tallest, the project would rise to 14 stories.
The developers are Lincoln Property Company, co-developer of Lincoln Heights Jail reboot, and S & R Partners, which is run by the Riboli family that founded the San Antonio Winery 101 years ago. Neighborhood opposition to the project has been firm.
College Station
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Early designs for the 5.7-acre property just east of the Chinatown Gold Line once called for two 20-story towers, but the most recent designs by architects Johnson Fain show a shorter plan for the site. The project, developed by Atlas Capital Group, now calls for six low-rise buildings, street-level retail, and a 37,000-square-foot grocery store.
Work was expected to start at the end of 2016, but doesn’t appear to have gotten underway. The lots are still regularly used as parking for big events.
Los Angeles State Historic Park
Los Angeles, CA 90012
The beloved park reopened last year after a $20-million renovation, but there’s still a bit of work to be done. Coming to the eastern end of the park are a giant water wheel and a connection to the soon-to-be-restored Los Angeles River.
Baby’s All Right
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Williamsburg, Brookyln-based music venue Baby’s All Right is opening a West Coast branch in a portion of a 28,000-square-foot warehouse near the Spring Street Bridge, just south of the Los Angeles State Historic Park. The warehouse would be reused, plus a second story, an outdoor bar with seating, and a rooftop deck would be added to the existing structure.
The project requires series of approvals from the city, but operator Eli Kagan said he wanted to open the venue in late 2018 or early 2019.
The warehouse complex that includes Baby’s All Right is host to a handful of other hip, New York-associated spots, including David Chang’s Majordomo and a fancy cocktail bar.
Comments
The giant eraser arrives removing any semblance or sense of place. Chinatown will unnecessarily be scrubbed from the landscape. Now folks can view the faux Chinese Theater as a facsimile of Oriental design. How predictable, how sad because the new design will have little integrity to speak of.
By lanatik on 09.02.17 7:44am
I live in Chinatown and most of these ideas look really great but the City should deem Ctown a high density zone. We have the best transpo in LA – Metro stop, Union Station, the 5, 110 and 101 – within walking distance. Not to mention, Echo Park, DTLA and Dodgers Stadium – within walking distance! Stop developers from building your typical 5 story apts/condos. We need high rises in this part of town. Sprawl should not be allowed here – build up not out! Garcetti – mandate nothing less that 12 stories around DTLA. Come on LA – be great!
By AdamWhite78 on 09.02.17 1:06pm
One would be hard pressed to defend any aspect of Chinatown as authentic in any Chinese sense—-it is at its best a pre-Disneyland idea of a safe and sanitized Chinese experience for White people, where Chinese people live and work. Or did.
What’s being replaced is, like much of the rest of the stuff that draws the ire of the anti-change crowd, is pretty awful looking and hard to imagine as historic. What’s going in is new, and hasn’t got much more to say for it so the change seems to be one of scale. But AdamWhite78 makes the most valid point: Why isn’t the area zoned as high density, given its location on the edge of the central city?
By Gryphonisle on 09.02.17 6:45pm
wish i had more cash…chinatown is blowing up and no one knows it yet. in 10 years this place will be as wealthy as the arts district is now.
By Sandcastle Dreams on 09.05.17 8:56am