Developer Crescent Heights has taken an important step forward with its proposed mixed-use tower in Downtown's South Park neighborhood, with the start of the project's environmental review period.

The proposed 70-story development, slated for a nearly one-acre site at 1045 S. Olive Street, would feature 794 apartments and 12,504 square feet of ground-level commercial uses.  Plans also call for parking on six subterranean levels and eight above-grade levels that would be fully wrapped with residential units along Olive and 11th Streets.

New York-based architecture firm ODA is designing the tower, which would rise to a maximum height of 810 feet above street level.  The project incorporates elements of classic Mid-Century Modern homes in Los Angeles, including floor-to-ceiling windows that give way to cantilevered balconies.  Numerous amenity decks are planned throughout the tower, including spaces at the roof level and cut into the side of the building.

Crescent Heights, which originally planned 1045 Olive as a smaller 714-foot tower, hopes to begin construction on the project in 2019, with completion anticipated by 2023.

1045 Olive is being submitted to the State of California's ELDP program, which guarantees faster processing times for environmental lawsuits to developments budgeted at $100 million or more.

The project is Crescent Heights' third major high-rise development in the Los Angeles area, following Ten Thousand in Century City and the proposed Palladium Residences in Hollywood.