The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has given its blessing to a proposal from Jade Enterprises which calls for the construction of a new hotel and residential complex to a site near the L.A. Convention Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

The South Park Towers project, located at 1600 S. Flower Street, which span a property which is also bounded by the I-10 Freeway, Venice Boulevard and Hope Street. Plans call for the construction of two high-rise buildings featuring a 300-room hotel, 250 residential units, 3,200 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space, 10,000 square feet of medical offices, and parking for 288 vehicles.

Designed by AC Martin, the project would include near identical buildings standing 22 and 23 stories in height, clad in glass and rising roughly 260 feet above street level. Plans call for amenity decks at the podium and roof levels, and other common features such as fitness centers and meeting rooms. Digital signage is shown wrapping the building podiums.

Freeway viewAC Martin

Construction of the mixed-use complex is expected to occur over a 32-month period, per an environmental study adopted by the City Council, although a precise start date for the project has not been announced.

Concurrent with its approval of requested project entitlements, which still require sign offs from the City Council, the Commission was asked to consider an appeal from the owner of a neighboring property at 1721 South Flower Street, who argued that the plan violates an agreement dating to the 1980s which requires that parking for his land be provided at the South Park Towers site. The Commission denied the appeal at the recommendation of staff, who concluded that the project would uphold the agreement during and after construction of the mixed-use complex. However, the Commission also voted to require that Jade Enterprises work to add articulation to the rooflines of the towers, and also recommended disallowing freeway-facing digital signage.

The hotel component of the project is intended to complement the neighboring L.A. Convention Center, which has long been slated for an expansion project. A growing budget, and diminished staff capacity as a result of the response to the Palisades fire, appears to have pushed the most optimistic completion date for that multi-billion dollar effort to after the 2028 Olympics.

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