Two years after breaking ground in Warner Center, the concrete podium of a multifamily residential development is finally beginning to rise.

The development, located at 6041 Variel Avenue, calls for a seven-story building featuring 263 apartments - with 11 ground-floor live/work units - and parking for 485 vehicles.

Togawa Smith Martin s designing the building, which is depicted in a rendering as a contemporary mid-rise structure with cantilevered and inset balconies.

Construction of 6041 Variel was originally anticipated to complete construction this year.  At the time of the project's groundbreaking, it was budgeted at $75 million.

BCEGI International Company, which is developing the apartments, has also obtained entitlements to construct a 12-story office tower on the same property.  The site of the second phase will serve as a surface parking lot until construction is ready to begin.

A similar development - called Vela on Ox - was recently completed on an adjacent site fronting Oxnard Street.  That development is also slated to be followed by a mid-rise office building.

Construction recently began for a 174-room Home2Suites by Hilton one block south.