A pair of industrial buildings just east of Los Angeles State Historic Park could make way for a live/work apartment complex.

The project site, located at 1435-1465 N. Main Street, is improved with two tilt-up concrete structures dating to the late 1990s.  Plans submitted yesterday to the City of Los Angeles call for razing both to make way for the construction of an approximately 117,000-square-foot mixed-use project consisting of 243 live/work apartments and 66,618 square feet of non-residential floor area.

City records list the owners of the project applicant as an entity called 1457 Main Property, LLC.

Requested entitlements include an exemption to the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan to allow for a project with 43 percent residential floor area in lieu of the property's current 15 percent limit.

That specific plan, adopted in 2012, has served as a deterrent to development surrounding Los Angeles State Historic Park due in part to the high requirements for non-residential floor area.  City Councilmember Gil Cedillo, who represents Chinatown, has taken steps to amend the plan to facilitate investment.

That has not stopped other projects with entitlements that predate the Cornfield Arroyo plan from moving forward, however.  Construction is now underway for a 318-unit apartment complex just two blocks south along Main Street, and an even larger mixed-use development is slated for a currently-empty site on Spring Street.