Just east of La Brea Avenue in Baldwin Hills, rumors are swirling of a new mixed-use project at the former site of View Park Community Hospital.

The roughly five-acre site at 5035 W. Coliseum Street, most recently housed offices for AT&T field technicians, but has been vacant since at least 2021. According to a representative, the project's sponsor is Los Angeles-based development firm Thrive Living, a subsidiary of Magnum Real Estate Group.

According to a permit application just filed with the L.A. Department of Building and Safety, Shaoul is proposing to raze the existing structures on the property, clearing the way for a new six-story development featuring 800 apartments above commercial space and a five-level subterranean parking garage.

Although the project has yet to be filed with the Planning Department, a project description indicates that plans rely on Transit Oriented Communities incentives to allow greater density and floor area than zoning rules would otherwise permit. In exchange, 184 of the new apartments would be set aside for rent as low-income affordable housing.

The Baldwin Hills project would also be composed of prefabricated modular units, built off site and then assembled on the property.

While the full nature of the project may not be captured in the permit filing - social media has already been discussing Shaoul's plans for the Coliseum Street site. In a quote attributed to the private Crenshaw Manor Community Association group, the Facebook page West Adams Avenues posted yesterday that the project is slated to include a Costco, and could be built over within two years. Per the quote, no gas station or tire center is to be included with the project, which will also have access from La Brea Avenue to the west and Obama Boulevard to the north.

Property records list the owner of the land as 5035 Coliseum Property, LLC, an entity managed by Ben Shaoul of New York-based Magnum Real Estate Group. While not included in the building permits associated with the apartment complex, some of that access may be aided by a deal made last year by Shaoul to acquire the neighboring Baldwin Hills Shopping Center to the north at 5060 Obama Boulevard. The nearly 104,000-square-foot property is anchored by a Ralphs grocery store.

The project's eligibility for Transit Oriented Communities incentives is owed to its location within a half-mile of Metro's Expo/La Brea Station, which is served by the E Line. Properties surrounding stops on the E Line have proven attractive to developers in the past decade, with large mixed-use projects starting to sprout near stops at Bundy Drive, Sepulveda Boulevard, La Cienega Boulevard, and Crenshaw Boulevard, as well as in Culver City.