One decade ago, local developer Sonny Astani became part of the initial push to build residential towers in Downtown Los Angeles' then fledgling South Park neighborhood. His development, dubbed Concerto, reimagined the formerly moribund corner of 9th and Figueroa Streets with a high-rise and low-rise complex featuring 629 condominiums and pedestrian-oriented commercial space.
However, the global economic crisis of 2007 proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for Astani. Following the bankruptcy of his lender, the Beverly Hills-based developer was forced to sell the partially finished project in 2011. The property eventually came under the ownership of Chicago-based real estate firm ST Residential, who rebranded the project as "Apex," and repositened its existing tower as a luxury rental complex.
Four years later, in the midst of a red-hot apartment market, long dormant plans for a second Apex tower have come back to life.
According to an environmental report published earlier this week by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, plans now call for a 28-story building, featuring 341 residential units, nearly 11,700 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 438 subterranenan parking spaces. This revised proposal would raise the total number of units within the Apex development to 689, representing a nearly 10% increase from the earlier plan pushed by Astani. However, the augmented residential density would not result in an increase in the project's total floor area.
The revised project is also accompanied by a retooled look for the proposed tower. Previous designs by architecture firm HansonLA called for a 30-story structure which would have mirrored the offset massing of the existing Apex tower on Figueroa Street. The revived project will instead move forward with a slightly more reserved design, crafted by Gensler and Preston Architects. The tower would rise to a maximum height of 312 feet above street level, clad with glass and metal.
An exact budget and timeline for the second phase of Apex is currently unclear. The tower would be located one block west of 888 South Hope Street, a similar mixed-use development planned by the CIM Group.
