Just east of the E Line's Downtown Santa Monica terminus, the city's latest project from developer WS Communities is complete at the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard and Colorado Avenue.

The project, which replaced a Denny's restaurant at 1550 Lincoln Boulevard, consists of a five-story featuring 100 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above approximately 11,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and subterranean parking for 232 vehicles.  

Rendering of 1550 Lincoln BoulevardWS Communities

Designed by KFA Architecture, the podium-type building features an all-white exterior. At street-level, a courtyard opens onto Colorado Avenue to the south, while a pedestrian walkway cuts through the site toward Lincoln Boulevard to the east. On-site amenities include a gym, a pool, and a rooftop spa.

The apartment complex, which is named NMS Lincoln, is the latest in a recent string of developments which have reshaped the stretch of Lincoln Boulevard running north from the I-10 freeway trench in Downtown Santa Monica. Cypress Equity Investments has partnered on a trio of projects which have created more than 300 apartments one block to the south, and is also planning additional housing for a site directly across the street from 1550 Lincoln. Related California is responsible for the largest project now underway along the corridor - a 280-unit apartment complex now rising next door at 710 Broadway.

Aerial view looking southwestHunter Kerhart Architectural Photography

WS Communities made waves last year with a score of builder's remedy projects that took advantage of the Santa Monica's non-compliant housing element to propose thousands of apartments that would have typically been blocked by zoning rules. The developer and the city recently reached a settlement which will allow most of those projects to move forward through the city's land use entitlement process.

While WS Communities remains the neighborhood's biggest residential landlord, its holdings used to be even larger. Last year, the company sold off eight sites entitled for up to 620 apartments to developer Tishman Speyer.

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