Heavy equipment is on-site at the former home of Pico Bowl in Santa Monica, as work commences for a new mixed-use apartment complex from Cypress Equity Investments.

The project site, located at 234 Pico Boulevard, is approved for the construction of a new four- and five-story building featuring 186 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments with roughly 11,000 square feet of ground-level retail space. Plans also call for a 346-car garage.

View looking southwest from Pico BoulevardKFA Architecture

Project approvals include density bonus incentives to permit a taller building than would otherwise be allowed by zoning rules. In exchange, 19 of the apartments are to be set aside as deed-restricted affordable housing.

KFA Architecture designed the project approved by Santa Monica officials in 2023.

While the bowling alley that long occupied the site is gone, the new construction is intended to integrate its Googie "BOWL" sign, which is to be reinstalled on the property after construction of the apartment complex.

216-234 Pico BoulevardCity of Santa Monica

Cypress Equity Investments, based in neighboring Brentwood, has developed hundreds of apartments at sites across Santa Monica over the past five years, and has plans for several additional developments totaling more than 1,000 new homes.

Cypress Equity Investments acquired the site in 2020, not long after a prior owner had entitled the property for a smaller three-story development with 105 apartments and ground-floor commercial space. The new plan, as a result of more robust density bonus incentives subsequently approved by state law, is roughly 75 percent larger.

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