One month after the massive blaze which destroyed half of the unfinished Da Vinci apartments, developer Geoff Palmer is preparing to begin work on yet another Downtown residential-retail complex.

Earlier this month, grading and shoring permits were issued by the Department of Building and Safety for the second half of Broadway Palace, a mixed-use development planned near the border between South Park and the Historic Core.  The project, located at 928 South Broadway, would create 439 studio, one-and-two bedroom apartments in a low-rise and mid-rise.  Plans call for a ten-story building along Broadway, lined with 35,000 square feet of street-level commercial space.  On the eastern side of the property fronting Main Street, the building would stand six stories tall above ground-floor live-work units.

The design of Broadway Palace forges a stark contrast to Palmer's other Central City developments, all of which feature Italian-Renaissance-themed architecture.  Instead, the building will feature a terra cotta brick facade tailored to resemble the appearances of nearby historic buildings.  The project's ten-story height is also informed by the Broadway Design Overlay, which seeks to maintain the neighborhood signature mid-rise street wall.

Palmer's project is one of several mixed-use complexes in development along an increasingly bustling stretch of Olympic Boulevard.  Besides the first stage of Broadway Palace, currently underway on the south side of the intersection, a quartet of seven-story apartment buildings are in various stages of construction two blocks west.  Local investor Barry Shy also plans to construct a 15-story condominium tower across the street from Palmer's development.  Altogether, the projects would comprise more than 1,800 new housing units.

However, an exact timeline for the Broadway Palace development remains uncertain.  As of this past weekend, the parking lot at 928 Broadway remains in use as a surface parking lot.