In 2021, co-developers Townline and Forme Development secured approvals to build a skyline-altering 40-story tower just north of Wilshire/Vermont Station in Koreatown. Three years later, with the market in a different place, the Canadian real estate firms are now thinking smaller for the project.

Last week, Townline and Forme submitted an application to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning seeking approvals for the construction of a new eight-story building at 550 S. Shatto Place, featuring 318 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments above a two-level, 194-car parking garage and roughly 21,000 square feet of commercial space to be provided within and adjoining, repurposed church.

Street-level view looking eastKTGY

Requested approvals include density bonus incentives to permit a larger, taller building than allowed by zoning rules, as well as waivers of other development standards. In exchange, 36 of the proposed apartments would be set aside for rent by very low- and extremely low-income households.

KTGY is designing the ground-up elements of the new project, while Omgivning is serving as architect for the reuse of the neighboring church, which was built in the 1930s.

Street-level view looking northeastKTGY

The proposed project is the third application which Townline and Forme have put forth for the site at 550 Shatto, following original plans for a 32-story building, and the 40-story, 367-unit tower approved in 2021.

The Canadian developers have also teamed up on a proposed high-rise tower in Chinatown, which was slated to begin work in Summer 2021, but has also yet to break ground.

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