A report to the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners unveils an updated design for the $2-billion Fourth & Central development in Downtown Los Angeles.

Street-level view looking north from Central AvenueStudio One Eleven / Adjaye Associates

The proposed project from Continuum Partners, named for its location at and around the intersection of 4th Street and Central Avenue, calls for the construction of multiple high-rise structures containing a total of 1,589 inclusive of approximately 250 units of affordable housing. Plans also show three office buildings - previously estimated to contain more than 400,000 square feet of space - as well as ground-floor commercial space and parking.

As previously reported by the Los Angeles Times, the new plan for Fourth & Central decreases the size of the David Adjaye-designed residential tower at the northern section of the project site from 44 stories to 30 stories. However, the project provides more housing than originally proposed by adding a new tower at the southern section of the site along Central Avenue.

Courtyard at Fourth & CentralStudio One Eleven / Adjaye Associates

New plans from Studio One Eleven also point to a shift from condominiums to rental units. Whereas the project had previously been slated to feature 949 rental units and 572 condominiums, new plans call for 1,444 rental units and just 123 for-sale homes. Likewise, plans for a 68-room hotel have been dropped, according to plans.

“We have engaged in extensive dialogue with our neighbors in Little Tokyo, the Arts District, and the Industrial District, and those productive conversations have guided us to make several meaningful adjustments to the Fourth & Central project,” said Continuum Partners founder and chief executive officer Mark Falcone in a news release. “This input has been instrumental in enhancing our project and ensuring it brings even greater benefits to the community. The combination of a dense, mixed-use project in this location that does not displace a single resident, but adds over 1,500 units of housing and has ambitious goals for sustainability shows this project meets or exceeds all the main goals of the state, the City, and the community organizations who helped shaped the DTLA 2040 plan.”

While the project has yet to complete the city's entitlement gauntlet, Continuum Partners has also secured additional protections for whatever legal challenges may follow. The state has certified Fourth & Central as an Environmental Leadership Development Project, which means that any legal challenge to the project under the California Environmental Quality Act must be decided on within 270 days, potentially shaving months off of the project timeline.

Programmatic diagram for Fourth & CentralStudio One Eleven

The proposed development has faced vocal opposition from some in Skid Row and Little Tokyo , arguing that the project will accelerate gentrification and pull development from the Arts District into their neighborhoods. Continuum Partners, based in Denver, has been a part of the Arts District's recent building boom, completing an office building near the Sixth Street Viaduct in 2021.

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