A 1980s retail center near the border between Hancock Park and Mid-Wilshire is poised for redevelopment, according to plans submitted earlier this month to the City of Los Angeles.
Pacific Springs, LLC - which owns the strip mall at the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Highland Avenue - is seeking to redevelop the property with a mixed-use structure containing multifamily housing and commercial space. Plans call for the construction of an eight-story edifice containing 242 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above 10,900 square feet of ground-floor retail and a three-level, 354-car underground garage.
In exchange for Transit Oriented Communities incentives permitting a larger structure than allowed by zoning, Pacific Springs would set aside 25 of the proposed apartments as deed-restricted affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.
TCA Architects is designing the proposed development, which is depicted in renderings as a contemporary podium-type building with a U-shaped footprint wrapping a central courtyard. Other planned amenities include a fitness center, a club room, and a rooftop deck facing the intersection of Wilshire and Citrus Avenue.
At the rear of the site, the project calls for vacating a segment of alley which runs behind the strip mall to merge the site with an adjoining parking lot to the north. Under the proposed plan, this space would be converted into an 18,000-square-foot landscaped green space, similar to Mansfield Avenue Park across Citrus Avenue. Ground-level townhome units would line the new green space along the northern side of the building.
The project follows a number of recent developments in close proximity to the intersection of Wilshire and La Brea Avenue, where the first station on Metro's Purple Line extension is scheduled to open in 2023.
One block on Wilshire, Korda Group completed construction of an Art Deco-inspired apartment complex called The Mansfield in 2019.
Directly north of the station's entrance, CGI Strategies is planning a mixed-use project featuring housing and a hotel along La Brea Avenue.
- Hancock Park (Urbanize LA)