In 2016, fast casual restaurant chain Sweetgreen moved its corporate headquarters west across the country from Washington D.C. to Culver City. Four years later, the company is moving back east - or at least a few Metro stops in that direction.
The Luzzato Company, a Los Angeles-based real estate development firm, has commenced work on a roughly 50,000-square-foot office complex at Exosition Boulevard and 11th Avenue that is slated to become Sweetgreen's new headquarters. Plans call for the reuse of some existing structures, as well as the addition of a four-story building on a roughly 1.5-acre site that was previously operated by Unified Grocers.
HLW is designing the project, which will include a newly-constructed four story building capped by a rooftop amenity deck, as well as a former loading dock converted to a landscaped courtyard.
Buildings permits indicate that in addition to office space, the new facility will include a test kitchen and other ancillary functions.
Sweetgreen's move to Jefferson Park follows on the heels of several other companies, including landscape architecture firm RCH Studios, which is located in a restored warehouse nearby.
The property, located a few blocks east of Metro's Expo/Crenshaw light rail station, was previously entitled for the construction of 68 townhomes by Olson Homes. City records show that the property sold in June 2019 for $14.75 million.
While Olson may have parted ways with the 3101 Exposition site, it retains several other properties in the surrounding neighborhood. The Seal Beach-based homebuilder is now in the midst of construction on 78 townhomes on the opposite side of the Metro right-of-way.
The Luzzato Company, which is based in the Fairfax neighborhood, is also developing an office complex near Expo/Bundy Station which will become the new home of USC's Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine.
- Jefferson Park (Urbanize LA)
