Across the street from Metro's La Cienega/Jefferson Station, developer Carmel Partners is in the process of transforming the site of former radio broadcast facility into the Cumulus District, a 12-acre complex consisting of more than 1,200 apartments, open space, and a Whole Foods Market. Now, a neighboring property owner is looking to follow suit.
Earlier this month, an application was filed with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning to redevelop a roughly 1.5-acre vehicle storage yard at 3200 S. La Cienega Boulevard with a nearly 250,000-square-foot multifamily residential development. The proposed project calls for the construction of a seven-story building featuring 254 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above a two-level, 242-car basement garage. Although plans do not call for ground-floor commercial uses, like Cumulus across the street, street-fronting townhome-style units are planned along La Cienega Boulevard.
Project applicant S.D. Abraham - working through the Beverly Hills-based Entity Mesa Rim, LLC - has requested Transit Oriented Communities incentives for the project, including increases to allowable height, floor area, and density beyond the limits of the property. The project, which is eligible for the program due to its location less than a quarter-mile south from La Cienega/Jefferson Station, would be required to set aside 28 apartments at rents affordable to extremely low-income households (30 percent or less than the area median income, or no more than $33,800 per year for a household of four).
DE Architects is designing 3200 La Cienega, which is depicted in a rendering as a contemporary low-rise structure, clad in fiber cement panels, cement plaster, and metal panels. Plans call for on-site amenities including multiple courtyards, recreation rooms, outdoor decks, and a fitness center. Additionally, a sliver of land which abuts a utility corridor along the southern property line would be used as a dog park for residents.
The proposed apartment complex is the latest in a series of large developments slated for the surrounding area, which includes portions of the Baldwin Hills and West Adams neighborhoods.
Just west of La Cienega/Jefferson Station, developer Samitaur Constructs and architect Eric Owen Moss are now midway through construction at the 17-story Wrapper office tower, with plans for an even larger building on a neighboring site.
North of Cumulus, Kilroy Realty Corporation purchased the Blackwelder office complex for $186 million in 2019, and is planning an expansion of the property.
