Urbanize LA: 2025 in review

As we come to the last page of the calendar, it's time for another roundup of the biggest stories that shaped the past twelve months. Here are Urbanize LA's top stories of 2025.

In something that has been a familiar refrain for the past few years, 2025 was light on groundbreakings (at least in the megaproject category). The long-awaited Convention Center expansion started work in October, and major Downtown property owners breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps not coincidentally, Convention Center and LA Live overlord AEG filed plans to a new hotel and condominium tower on Olympic Boulevard shortly afterward. That plan will of course wait on better economic conditions before shovels hit dirt, as is the case with AEG's other hotel project on the south side of Olympic.

This doesn't quite grab the headlines in the same way, but it's also been a big year for for-profit builders of affordable housing. HVN Development and Passo are among several firms taking advantage of new city development incentives to build projects targeting low- and middle-income renters. 

And we shouldn't overlook continued progress on the megaprojects that remain under construction across the region, including the One Beverly Hills development (which seems to become a few billion dollars more expensive each time it hits the headlines), as well as the OC Vibe project next to the Honda Center in Anaheim (which is getting its own $1-billion makeover). Likewise, concrete and rebar continues to rise for Apple's new office campus on the L.A. - Culver City border, and construction enters the home stretch for the Lucas Museum, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, and LACMA's David Geffen Galleries.

Readers continued to click on all things LAX related in 2025 - and with good reason. The LAX/Metro Transit Center opened to the public in June, even as the accompanying people mover's debut date continues to drift farther and farther into the future. At the same time, the airport is looking to give its aging central terminal area a pre-Olympics face lift, and has likewise embarked on a controversial project that will add a spaghetti-junction like array of vehicular overpasses to overhaul how traffic enters and exits said central terminal area. Not forgotten is Hollywood Burbank Airport, which is in the middle of its own expensive (and architecturally significant) expansion.

This past year was also notable for mall redevelopments - they seemed to be popping up everywhere. The owners of the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach rolled out plans to build more apartments on the mall's backside, while Rams owner Stan Kroenke debuted plans for a $10-billion megaproject centered on the team's practice facility and headquarters in Warner Center. One of Downtown's handful of malls - the fortress-like Bloc - is now approved for the construction of a 53-story apartment tower above its parking structure, while C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and Hines have secured approvals to build housing and commercial uses on the 17-acre South Coast Plaza Village in Santa Ana. One mall without redevelopment in this future is the Civic Center's Los Angeles Mall, where City officials have all but given up on trying to save the beleaguered retail center.

It was a banner year for YIMBYs in Sacramento, due in large part to the signing of SB 79 - the white whale of housing legislation. Its impacts will not be felt for a while, and depending on how cities figure out the various carve-outs, it may not move the needle nearly as much as some might be hoping for. That being said, some of that is a result of previous legislation having already done a lot of the heavy lifting - notably the introduction of consequences for cities that don't come up  viable housing elements.

One thing that the City of Los Angeles is not doing is taking up single-stair reform - or at least not opting to be among the first to do so. Culver City was the lone Los Angeles County jurisdiction to jump at the chance to adopt its own ordinance.

Metro celebrated two ribbon cuttings this year - one for the A Line's extension to Pomona, the other for the 5.5-mile Rail to Rail active transportation corridor in South L.A. The first phase of the D Line's extension to the Westside, once slated to open at the tail end of 2025, is now coming in the first half of 2026. Work is in progress for two projects in the Valley - a light rail line down Van Nuys Boulevard (with a potential Metrolink connection in the future) and an upgrade of the G Line busway. Other efforts remain in the planning stages, including the Sepulveda Line, the Southeast Gateway Line, the Torrance extension, and Link Union Station (which now facing legal opposition from the City of Vernon). And though it's not truly a Metro project, plans for a gondola system linking Union Station to Dodger Stadium were recently re-approved by the Metro board, although opposition from the L.A. City Council remains.

California's two high-speed rail projects remain far, far away from reality - the state-run project remains under construction the Central Valley, although there is no concrete timeline for bringing service to the L.A. area. Nonetheless, environmental clearances for the L.A. to Anaheim section continue to move forward. Likewise, heavy construction has yet to occur for the privately-run Brightline West project, which suddenly is poised to cost more than $21 billion.

Wrapping it up here are some other odds and ends that don't seem to fit neatly into any of the buckets above. Entitlement applications were filed for large mixed-use apartment buildings in Downtown and Studio City, representing two of the biggest projects initiated since the pandemic in L.A. And in a shocker, Erewhon purchased a building at the intersection of Olympic and Hill in Downtown - a vote of confidence at a time when sentiments have turned against the neighborhood. Though perhaps it shouldn't have been completely unexpected, given that Erewhon previously announced its intention to open a store one block north seven years ago.

Anyway - thoughts, comment section? What did I miss? Let me know.

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