Updated, 11:15 p.m., July 18: Downtown Los Angeles may be getting another large apartment development, despite warnings that the submarket could become oversupplied.
As the acting manager of the project, Brentwood property owner Leon Ahdoot filed plans Monday for a mixed-use residential development right in the heart of DTLA. It would rise on Flower Street, between Venice Boulevard and Cameron Lane, according to city documents.
The proposal calls for a seven-story building and provides two options — either 152 units with 1,184 square feet of ground floor commercial and retail space, or 147 units with 6,741 square feet of ground floor commercial and retail space.
The project would include three adjacent lots, which are currently occupied by three low-level warehouses, according to CoStar.
The biggest of the structures is a 9,800-square-foot class C industrial warehouse at 1370 and 1374 South Flower Street. Ahdoot acquired it for $1.7 million in 2004.
The warehouse at 1410 South Flower Street was purchased last year for $1.8 million. The 6,200-square-foot space was purchased under the entity, Oxley Place LLC. The third and final warehouse has 7,300 square feet of space and was purchased for $1.9 million last year by an affiliate LLC, Carson Corner.
Both Oxley Place LLC and Carson Corner LLC are registered with the state using the same San Vicente Boulevard address as Ahdoot’s Corner Fund Inc. The actual developers of the project, he told The Real Deal, want to remain anonymous.
More than 1,500 new DTLA residential units were delivered in the past year, and more than 7,000 are currently under construction. This fast rate of new supply has already caused vacancies to rise and rental growth to slow, according to a June CoStar market report.
In the period between 2013 and 2015, the vacancy rose from 4.1 percent to 6.9 percent. CoStar Market Analytics project that it will rise above 7 percent this year, TRD previously reported.
Just next door to the South Park properties at hand, the Flower Apartments at 1420 South Flower Street offers 35 studio units.
Correction: An earlier version of this story suggested Leon Ahdoot is the sole developer behind the project. He’s the manager.