Protective fencing has appeared around the perimeter of the former Palos Verdes Inn in Redondo Beach, signaling the start of work on a mixed-use development from the Legado Companies.

The approximately 4.3-acre site, located at the northeast corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Palos Verdes Boulevard, is approved for the construction of a five-story complex featuring 115 residential units atop approximately 22,000 square feet of street-fronting retail and restaurant space.

Plans also call for the renovation of the Palos Verdes Inn, which will reopen as a 110-key hotel featuring a modern exterior and a rooftop pool deck.

The Legado Companies obtained a 12-year, $75-million loan for the project in early December 2019, reports the Los Angeles Business Journal.

The Legado Redondo development was originally envisioned as a larger 180-unit apartment complex, before being downsized first to 146 residential units, and then to its approved 115-unit form in order to gain the support of the Redondo Beach City Council.

Complaints regarding traffic congestion have made mixed-use developments a sore subject in Redondo Beach, which instituted a one-year moratorium on such projects in 2017.  That same year, voters passed a measure blocking plans for a $300-million redevelopment of the decaying Redondo Beach Pier.

Since the end of that moratorium, Redondo Beach has seen the completion of One South - a mixed-use project consisting of 52 condominiums and 10,500 square feet of retail a short distance east of the Legado development site.

Other projects from the Legado Companies include a similar mixed-use apartment building slated to rise from a vacant site in Playa del Rey.