Tribune Real Estate Holdings has dropped plans for office space at its proposed tower at 2nd Street and Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, instead opting for a taller building composed of apartments.

The project, now envisioned as a 37-story structure, would feature 680 residential units - including studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and penthouse units - according to a presentation to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee.  Plans also call for 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, with parking for residents to be located in an adjacent garage.

The new design by Solomon Cordwell Buenz is taller and slimmer than the prior iteration of the project, which appeared as a mass of stacked, offset boxes.  Rising nearly 570 feet in height, the residential tower would feature open-air decks at its rooftop and on several terrace levels.  A large pool and deck at the tower's base would be accompanied by interior amenity spaces, including a fitness center.

Shops and restaurants would line the ground floor of the tower, including a plaza adjacent to the entrance of a Metro station now under construction at 2nd Street and Broadway.  Plans also call for a pedestrian paseo cutting east-to-west between Broadway and Spring Street, which would also be flanked by retail space.

According to a draft environmental impact report published earlier this year by the City of Los Angeles, construction of the tower could begin as early as 2022 and be completed by 2025.  This timeline could be impacted by the pace of construction below ground, where Metro has been beset by several delays in the delivery of the Regional Connector subway.  Construction of the 1.9-mile link between Little Tokyo and the Financial District is expected to conclude in 2022.

The project site sits across 2nd Street from Times Mirror Square, the home of the Los Angeles Times for more than 80 years until the newspaper's relocation to El Segundo in 2018.  Tribune Real Estate Holdings, a successor to the one-time owner of the Times, sold the former headquarters to Vancouver-based developer Onni Group, which is seeking approvals to raze a 1970s addition to the property to construct a pair of apartment towers.