The City of Los Angeles is hitting reset on plans to redevelop the Marlton Square site in Baldwin Hills.

In 2023, the City Council voted to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Hudson Pacific Properties for the approximately 5.7-acre property at 3700-3916 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 4011-4027 S. Marlton Avenue. The developer, best known for its office and studio complexes, had proposed the construction of a mixed-use complex including 300,000 square feet of offices and approximately 29,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial uses.

3700-3772 Martin Luther King Jr. BoulevardGoogle Street View

Three years later, with the Los Angeles office market showing no signs of returning to its pre-pandemic state, that project is now considered financially infeasible, and has been formally abandoned per a motion introduced by 10th District Councilmember Heather Hutt. Hutt's motion proposes that the City's Economic and Workforce Development Department move forward with new short-term and long-term strategies for the site, including another request for proposals, or even the possibility that the City of Los Angeles utilize all or a portion of the site to create new park space.

Hutt has recently sought to bring more park space to her district through a series of motions studying the possibility of transforming small vacant lots, mostly under city jurisdiction, into open space. The Marlton Square site would be the largest of those considered for such a use to date.

3700-3772 Martin Luther King Jr. BoulevardGoogle Maps

A new request for proposals could also yield interest from developers. In 2023, Hudson Pacific's project beat out competing submissions from South LA Studios, Nvision Development Group, and Harridge Development Group. Harridge, which owns the neighboring Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall, recently broke ground on 90 townhomes as the first component of a long-term redevelopment of that property, and previously challenged the decision to award the Marlton Square site to Hudson Pacific Properties.

Marlton Square, originally known as Santa Barbara Plaza, was home to a number of local businesses and department stores in the mid-20th century, but saw a gradual decline in the decades that followed. Portions of the site have already been developed with the Kaiser Permanent facility and a 102-unit affordable housing complex built by Meta Housing Corp.

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