Rick Caruso chops down 333 La Cienega high-rise tower

Rick Caruso and a rendering of his project at 333 La Cienega Boulevard (Credit: Twitter, Caruso Affiliated)
Rick Caruso and a rendering of his project at 333 La Cienega Boulevard (Credit: Twitter, Caruso Affiliated)

Developer Rick Caruso agreed to reduce the size of his planned 20-story tower at 333 South La Cienega Boulevard near the Beverly Center.

Caruso will reduce the height of his residential project to 16 stories and provide an additional $500,000 to the city for affordable housing, he told the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. The project is scheduled for a final vote by the City Council next week.

The 145-unit luxury apartment building, which has 10 percent of its units designated for affordable housing, would come in at 185 feet instead of the originally planned 240 feet. The site, previously home to shuttered off-price retailer Loehmann’s, is expected to open in 2020.

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The tower would be near another similar project by Caruso Affiliated – 8500 Burton, which opened in 2012.

Changes to Caruso’s project came at the behest of Councilman Paul Koretz, who is running for reelection and represents the area. He had announced his support for the project but decided last month it was too tall after receiving a petition with more than 1,000 signatures against Caruso’s tower. [LAT]Subrina Hudson