Developer scores $41M loan for DTLA micro-unit apartments

After securing a $41.1-million loan, Seattle-based real estate development firm Housing Diversity Corp. is set to begin work on a new micro-unit apartment complex near Pico Station in Downtown Los Angeles.

Slated to replace a surface parking lot at 1411 S. Flower Street, the project calls for the construction of an eight-story building featuring 227 studio units, most of which would average 265 square feet in size.

Steinberg Hart is designing 1411 Flower, which will be composed of five levels of wood-frame construction above a three-story concrete base. The contemporary podium-type building will include a rooftop amenity deck, as well as a ground-floor courtyard and a breezeway.

The apartment complex was entitled using Transit Oriented Communities incentives to permit a taller structure with less on-site open space than would otherwise be allowed by zoning rules. In exchange for the incentives, HDC is required to set aside 26 apartments are slated to be set aside as affordable housing priced at the extremely low-income level.

While only a portion of the apartments are to be deed-restricted for rent by lower-income households, even the market-rate units are expected to offer more affordable price points than most recent Downtown developments. When announcing the project in February 2021, HDC chief executive officer Brad Padden told Urbanize that 1411 Flower Street is expected to cater to households earning between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income.

According to a representative of HDC, completion of 1411 Flower is on pace to occur in December 2023.

The project is one of a handful of Los Angeles-area developments for HDC, following an apartment complex under construction near Hollywood and Highland, another Downtown project approved on Grand Avenue, and proposed buildings in Koreatown and Hollywood.

In its hometown, our sister site Urbanize Seattle recently reported that HDC closed on a construction loan for a 114-unit residential building in West Seattle.

• Another Micro-Unit Apartment Complex Planned in Downtown L.A. (Urbanize LA)