Los Angeles-based TRJLA, LLC has acquired a 1.9-acre site at 715-759 N. Hill Street in Chinatown with hopes of developing a mixed-use project.

“This is a lifetime opportunity to contribute to Chinatown’s revitalization and improve the Hill Street corridor. We are evaluating development options, which we trust will improve the quality of Chinatown’s physical environment and add to Los Angeles’ character as a diverse, sustainable and global destination.” Joseph Chang, chief financial officer of TRJLA, said in a news release. “We have partnered with AC Martin, a Los Angeles-based architecture firm with over 170 employees and a strong history in DTLA, to design the mixed-use project.”

Chang declined to provide more information on plans for the development site, which currently serves as a surface parking lot.

Kevin Chen, the chief executive officer of TRJLA and President of the Los Angeles Chinese Chamber of Commerce, is also the manager of Arts District Development, LLC, the company behind plans for a housing and hotel complex at 445 S. Colyton Street.

The Chinatown property is located one block south of a terraced pocket park now under construction at the intersection of Yale and Ord Streets, and the former site of the Velvet Turtle restaurant, which is approved for the construction of a housing and retail project.

"Defense tech" company Anduril Industries will reportedly make its new headquarters at the Los Angeles Times' former Orange County bureau and printing facility in Costa Mesa. 

The campus, called "the Press," is being developed by San Francisco-based SteelWave and Orange County-based 5-Ronin.  Anduril is slated to occupy all 450,000 square feet of the existing space at the property, as well as a new 190,000-square-foot building which will be constructed to the west, according to The Times.

The Times reports that the 10-year, 640,000-square-foot lease is among the largest in Orange County's history.

Anduril, which is led by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, is currently headquartered in Irvine.  The company, which was most recently valued at $1.9 billion, has contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Air Force.

Things to read from the past week:

  • Federal judge says there's an "apparent abdication of responsibility" on homelessness crisis among LA City officials, putting lives at risk: Read the order here (KNX1070)
  • A Conversation with New Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman: The Glendale Assemblymember talks legislation to reign in speed limits (Streetsblog CA)
  • Purple (D Line) Extension pays homage to the designs of Master Architect Paul R. Williams: "Metro’s Purple (D Line) Extension has a unique connection to one of William’s last commissioned works: the Linde Medical Center located at the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Gayley Avenue. The Linde Medical Center, now referred to as the Westwood Medical Plaza, will be a future entrance for the Purple (D Line) Extension’s Westwood/UCLA Station." (The Source)
  • Editorial: Give L.A.’s bus riders shelters and benches already: "The failure to put shelters at every stop shows how little regard Metro and city governments have for bus riders, the majority of whom are low-income people of color who are dependent on transit for mobility. Bus benches and shelters are not optional features. They are essential pieces of the transit infrastructure, especially as the climate warms and we have more extremely hot days. It’s inhumane to make riders bake in the blistering heat." (LA Times)
  • The One Main Problem Confronting the LA Transportation Movement: "In the crowded marketplace of ideas of ideas for making our communities better, it isn’t the job of elected officials to make bus lanes lanes and bike lanes popular — that’s our job as transportation advocates! We need to take responsibility for making our stuff popular instead of pawning it off." (Nate Holmes - Medium)
  • Koreatown Neighborhood Council Proposes Pedestrianizing Sixth Street: "WCKNC’s Reimagine 6th Street proposal calls for pedestrianizing seven blocks of Sixth Street, from Vermont Avenue to Normandie Avenue – about a half-mile. The plaza would be a block north of the Metro D (Purple) Line subway station at Wilshire/Normandie and the Metro B/D Lines station at Wilshire/Vermont." (Streetsblog LA)
  • Plans are canceled for Sunset Junction boutique hotel: Another twist in the Junction Gateway saga (Eastsider)
  • L.A. Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington to step down in May: "Washington, who has been with Metro since May 2015, spearheaded a number of notable successes including the passage of Measure M, the largest transportation investment ballot measure in North America. L.A. County voters overwhelmingly approved Measure M by more than 71 percent, launching the nation’s largest public works program  that will create an estimated 700,000 jobs in the region." (The Source)
  • South Central is Home: Race and the Power of Community Investment in Los Angeles: "hrough a historical analysis, Abigail Rosas discusses the ways in which a marginalized community, like South Central, California, became home to the thousands of Black and Latinx residents that have migrated to California since the 1960s. It is a beautifully written narrative of the work that Black and Latinx residents put into a community to make it their home. And it is ultimately a plea against gentrification’s displacement of Black and Brown bodies." (Boom California)
  • How Community Land Trusts Could Make LA More Affordable: "Community land trusts, or CLTs, are non-profit organizations that scoop up affordable housing stock before it gets into the hands of speculators, in order to keep it permanently affordable...Though fairly uncommon in L.A, the model has become increasingly popular among the region's affordable-housing advocates, who say it offers a long-term solution for preventing displacement and gentrification in an increasingly unaffordable city." (LAist)
  • "Garcetti Moves to Bring “Hundreds” of Unhoused into Project Roomkey with New Federal Funds": "There have been three roadblocks in the way of Roomkey becoming the game-changing program that was hoped for last spring: funding, program strategies, and political will. With funding taken care of, and federal intervention looming, it’s now up to our leaders to show the competence and resolve needed for Roomkey to finally meet its goals." (Streetsblog LA)
  • FTA environmentally clears L.A. Metro’s East San Fernando Valley light-rail transit project: "The project will officially begin major construction in 2022 and is scheduled to open by 2028." (Mass Transit Magazine)
  • With homeless people as an audience, federal judge brings L.A. officials to skid row: "Reading from his own court documents at the hearing, Carter talked of a 'long period of inaction by local government officials' after the Supreme Court struck down school desegregation in its landmark 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education. It took robust efforts by federal authorities and the courts before the ruling could be enforced. Carter openly wondered if Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis warranted similar, far-reaching action from the federal bench." (LA Times)
  • Why is Koreatown parking so bad?: "In the most bustling parts of our city, parking hovers above us as buildings with above-grade horizontal slats of open space for cars. You can find them at Koreatown’s most popular supermarkets and malls, such as Koreatown Plaza, the multi-level MaDang Courtyard on Wilshire and Western, or the new Zion Market that has three sprawling floors of parking for just one story of groceries and appliances. Then at night, when the businesses all close, the spaces lie unoccupied." (LA Taco)