Rendering vs. Reality: Figueroa Eight apartment tower in DTLA

More than one year after we last checked in at the intersection of 8th and Figueroa Streets in Downtown Los Angeles, developer Mitsui Fudosan America and Lendlease have putting the touches on one of the first high-rise apartment buildings to debut since the global pandemic.

The project, named Figueroa Eight for its cross streets, stands 42 stories in height and features 438 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments on its upper levels. Below, a podium structure contains parking and approximately 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

A leasing website for the property currently advertises 30 apartments as available, with rents ranging from $2,715 to $6,468 per month. That does not include penthouse units on the top floors.

Johnson Fain designed the contemporary glass and steel high-rise, which is approximately 500 feet tall. As required by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, the tower's above-grade parking is clad in the same type of glass which wraps the residential levels.

The tower, in addition to housing, features amenities including a swimming pool with cabanas at the podium level, a clubhouse, a lounge, and multiple sky decks.

Other members of the design team include interior design firm Rottet Studio and HKS Architects, which served as architect of record.

Mitsui Fudosan America, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Fudosan, has owned the site at 8th and Figueroa since the 1980s, and once considered developing the property with an office tower. When that project failed to come to fruition, the site remained a parking lot for nearly 30 years until the Figueroa Eight project was submitted to the city for entitlements in 2016.

In addition to the Figueroa Street property, Mitsui Fudosan America also owns a second property two blocks east at 8th and Hope Streets, where the company expects to break ground on a similar apartment tower in the near future.

The project is just the second high-rise apartment building to open in Downtown Los Angeles since the onset of the pandemic four years ago. The first, located west across Figueroa Street next to the Figat7th shopping mall, is Brookfield's Beaudry apartment tower.

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• 732 S Figueroa Street (Urbanize LA)