Metro CEO: Arts District won’t get a station until “manna falls from heaven”

Developers may be heading to the neighborhood in droves, but it might be a while until the Metro makes its final stop in the Arts District.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Phil Washington said the booming neighborhood is still far from receiving its own Metro Station, Downtown News reported.

Officials had studied the idea of building a station at either Third or Sixth streets to accommodate the neighborhood’s growing population. At a luncheon hosted by the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum on Monday, however, Washington said the Arts District won’t be getting its own station “unless manna falls from heaven.” He cited financial restraints as the key reason.

Instead, Washington said the neighborhood should be preparing for the Purple Line Extension, which is slated to open in 2024.

But the booming neighborhood could certainly benefit from its own station, considering thousands of residents are expected to arrive in the area in the coming years. The Arts District has been attracting an influx of new development recently too, as evidenced by the Row DTLA, a massive mixed-use retail and office complex, where Adidas just inked a lease. Hudson Pacific Properties is also working to redevelop the historic Maxwell Coffee Building at 405 Mateo Street. [DTN] – Natalie Hoberman