Last year, the Los Angeles City Council voted to finally enact new zoning rules opening up the vast majority of Downtown Los Angeles up to redevelopment with housing.

The new zoning, the result of the DTLA 2040 plan approved in 2023, looks to accommodate up to 125,000 new residents and 100,000 new jobs in Downtown by the year 2040 by steering growth into industrial zones at the southern and eastern parts of the community plan area. Some of the most significant changes are slated for neighborhoods such as the Arts District, the Fashion District, and Skid Row, which have already started to see residential development seep in over the past two decades.

One of largest sites at the confluence of those neighborhoods is the sprawling Row DTLA property, a 30-acre property at 7th and Alameda Streets which is owned by Atlas Capital Group. Formerly known as Alameda Square, planning officials took special notice of the Row DTLA site during the DTLA 2040 approval process, making targeted changes to the IX3 District that covers much of the Fashion District that would facilitate the development of housing without being accompanied by additional productive uses. The Row property already has more than 1.7 million square feet of commercial uses, spread across nine hulking structures.

Location of ROW DTLA at 7th and Alameda StreetsGoogle Maps

With zoning rules now approved at the Council level, Atlas Capital Group appears to be moving forward with a potential redevelopment of the surface parking lots that line the eastern side of the Row property fronting Alameda Street, submitting an application to the Planning Department in late December 2024 seeking approvals to subdivide the site.

While the exact nature of Atlas Capital Group's plans for the the site are unclear, a February 2024 submission to the Department of Building and Safety describes plans for a pair of eight-story buildings which would feature a combined 1,000 apartments with 1,000 parking spaces and 6,131 square feet of new retail space. This would include a 367-unit apartment building at the northern edge of the site, located above a podium and one subterranean level, and a second building with 633 apartments atop a single subterranean level.

Atlas Capital Group, which acquired many trophy assets once owned by defunct developer Meruelo Maddux more than a decade ago,  has put forth plans for several ambitious projects in the Downtown area, though none of come to fruition as yet. These include a new production studio which would rise across Alameda Street from the Row DTLA campus at a former Los Angeles Times printing plant and a 725-unit apartment complex next door to Metro's Chinatown Station.

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