123 studio apartments planned for long-empty lot in Pasadena

A presentation to the Pasadena Design Commission offers up a first look at plans for a new "single room occupancy" housing complex on a long-vacant property at the southwest corner of Green Street and Arroyo Parkway.

The property, located a block east of Pasadena Central Park and a short walk north from Metro's Del Mar Station, is slated for the construction of a six-story, roughly 86,000-square-foot development consisting of 123 studio apartments and 2,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.  Plans also call for automobile in an at-grade and subterranean structure below the building.

Adept Urban is designing the apartment complex, which is described in a staff report as being of a contemporary style with a flat roofline and an exterior of brick with smooth plaster and fiber cement panels.  The building is depicted with a C-shaped footprint, wrapping a courtyard at the second floor along the property's west side.  Plans also call for multiple roof decks and publicly-accessible open space at street level facing Green Street.

A site plan also shows the activation of space above the Metro right-of-way to the west as green space, although the staff report notes that this area is not controlled by the project team, and it is unclear if it is available to be developed in this way.

City records list the owner of the site at Steven Stathatos, a Pasadena-based attorney.

The presentation scheduled for the Design Commission is a preliminary view to solicit feedback.  No vote on the project is scheduled at this point in time.

The project site sits directly across Arroyo Parkway from a former Bank of America credit card processing center, which developer Atlas Capital Group is in the process of converting into 320,000 square feet of office space.  One block west on Fair Oaks Avenue, real estate development firm Goldrich Kest is planning a mixed-use apartment building next to the historic Green Hotel Apartments and Castle Green.

• Pasadena (Urbanize LA)