Mitsui Fudosan America, the U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Fudosan, is forging ahead with plans to construct a high-rise development at one of Downtown Los Angeles' most conspicuous parking lots.

Next week, MFA will provide the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committee with an opportunity to review the proposed 8th & Figueroa development, which is named for its location at the northeast corner of 8th and Figueroa Streets in the Financial District.  The project calls for replacing a longtime surface parking lot with a 41-story, 501-foot-tall building that would feature 438 residential units above 7,300 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking for 517 vehicles and 490 bicycles.

Architecture firm Johnson Fain is designing the project, which will dovetail with proposed and planned improvements to the public realm, such as the DOwntown Streetcar and the MyFigueroa streetscape improvement project.  Plans also call for the construction of a new mid-block pedestrian crossing, which would provide easier access to the Figat7th shopping center directly across the street.

The tower itself is portrayed as a rectangular glass-and-steel structure, protruding above a podium structure that would feature parking and a landscaped amenity deck.  All above-grade parking levels would be screened in accordance with the Downtown Design guidelines.

The project marks a return for MFA, which has been a landowner and developer in Downtown Los Angeles since the late 1980s but has remained dormant since the completion of the 601 Figueroa tower in 1990.  The firm burst back onto the scene just over one year ago by filing plans for the 8th and Figueroa development and a second tower at 8th and Hope Streets, and has since reestablished a Southern California office.

Construction of the 8th and Figueroa tower is anticipated in 2022.

MFA is not the only developer looking to bring multifamily residential to the Financial District.  Across the street, New York-based Brookfield has announced plans to complete a decades-old master plan for the Figat7th site through the construction of a tower on a long-vacant lot that abuts the sunken shopping center.