Work has started for a mixed-income apartment complex near a future Crenshaw Line station in Leimert Park.

Heavy equipment is now demolishing a former auto repair shop at 4252-4272 Crenshaw Boulevard, where non-profit developer Universal Standard Housing has obtained approvals to construct a four-story building featuring 111 studio and one-bedroom apartments, a rooftop deck, and a rear yard.  Plans call for 13 apartments to be set aside as affordable housing at the extremely low-income level, meaning that they would be limited to households making mo more than 30 percent than the area median income.

The Architects Collective is designing the low-rise structure, which will be built with prefabricated modular units.  According to the Inglewood-based firm's website, this will reduce costs and the construction timeline.

Renderings show that though the new apartment building would not contain ground-floor retail space, street-fronting live-work units would line Crenshaw Boulevard.

Besides being a trailblazer for modular construction in Los Angeles, the project is also notable in that it will not include parking - the result of an incentive offered by the Transit Oriented Communities guidelines.

The project site is located a block south of the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Plaza Shopping Mall, where Capri Capital Partners obtained approvals last year to construct a mixed-use development featuring offices, condominiums, rental housing, new retail, and a hotel.