Construction goes vertical for 130 apartments near USC

A year after starting work, Kansas-based developer Prime Place is taking things vertical at its new apartment complex in Exposition Park.

A tower crane now hovers above the project site, which sits two blocks west of the USC campus at 1320 W. Jefferson Boulevard.  The under-construction development will consist of a six-story building featuring 130  studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above two levels of basement parking.

Prime Place secured approvals for the project using Transit Oriented Communities incentives to achieve greater density than would otherwise be allowed under zoning rules.  In exchange, the building will include 13 apartments as deed-restricted affordable housing.

Prime Design, an affiliate of Prime Place, is designing the contemporary podium-type building, which will be clad in metal, fiber cement panels, and brick.  The complex will include two courtyards, a recreation room, and a rooftop deck.

The apartment complex, which will have capacity for 270 residents, replaced three small residential and commercial buildings.

Prime Place is also planning a second development in Exposition Park - a 108-unit apartment complex with ground-floor retail on Normandie Avenue - as well as new housing in the unincorporated community of Florence-Firestone.

• Exposition Park (Urbanize LA)