The vast majority of the largest building projects that the City of Los Angeles has greenlit in the first half of the year will be apartment complexes.
Seven of the top 10 projects by square footage are multifamily properties, and all but one of those projects have at least some affordable housing component, according to an analysis by The Real Deal of the city’s new building permits issued from Jan. 1 to June 25.
However, the three biggest developments are not apartment buildings.
The largest project in the pipeline approved so far is for a soundstage, retail and office center at 5601 West Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Bardas Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate are developing the nearly 600,000-square-foot project, known as Echelon Studios. The firms expect the development to open next year.
Second place went to the University of Southern California. The school already has broken ground on a three-story, 160,000-square-foot football performance center — complete with lockers, offices and meeting spaces — at 1029 West Childs Way. The Bloom Football Performance Center also is slated to open next year.
Chicago-based Banner Real Estate Group’s storage and retail facility at 20401 West Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills is the third-largest permit approved in the first half of the year. The project will measure more than 158,000 square feet. This storage site also is down the road from another new storage facility at 21101 West Ventura Boulevard that South Carolina-based Johnson Development Associates is building.
Last year, the largest construction project signed off on by Los Angeles was for a 930,000-square-foot senior housing development at 5500 North Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills.
Builders in Southern California of late are in a wait-and-see mode as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the region further hamper an already tight labor market. The state has 1.8 million undocumented workers, and about 41 percent of home builders are foreign-born.
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