After a half-year of excavation (and finding the Zanja Madre in the process), developer Forest City is now ready to go vertical in Chinatown.  Earlier this month, a tower crane sprouted at Blossom Plaza, the once-stalled residential-retail complex that will sit adjacent to the Gold Line's elevated Chinatown Station.  Rising five stories, the Johnson Fain-designed project will feature 237 apartment units, 20,000 square feet of street-level commercial space and a 449-stall parking garage.  Renderings show a retail paseo bisecting the $100 million development, feeding directly into a public plaza at the foot of the neighboring light rail station.

Several nearby properties are also the sites of proposed or under-construction projects, as Chinatown plays catch-up to the rest of Downtown's development scene.  A short walk north, construction is underway on a $20 million remodel of the 34-acre Los Angeles State Historic Park.  On a vacant lot across Spring Street, developer EVOQ Properties plans an ambitious project that could yield twin high-rise towers.  These developments come on the heels of earlier improvements, including the Metro at Chinatown Senior Lofts and the recently-opened Jia Apartments.

In addition to Blossom Plaza, Forest City harbors ambitions inside the Central City freeway loop.  This past April, the Cleveland-based developer revealed plans for two low-rise developments along the Broadway corridor.  Designed by Harley Ellis Devereaux, the two buildings would comprise 391 apartment units and roughly 16,000 square feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space.