LA County seeks proposals for Arts District redevelopment site

Officials want 40K sf of new office space for the county to use and to lease out

The existing parking structure on site (Credit: iStock)
The existing parking structure on site (Credit: iStock)

Los Angeles County has issued a request for proposal to redevelop a pair of properties in the Arts District, with plans to convert them into new office space. The new construction would be for one of its departments, with additional space the developer could lease out.

County authorities want to redevelop two lots on East 4th Place and Hewitt Street; one is a two-story office building and the other is a parking structure, according to Urbanize. The property is now used by the Department of Public Social Services Civic Center.

The county wants 40,000 square feet of Class A office space developed on the 1.5-acre site for the department. It wants the developer to pay for the cost of construction. According to the proposal, enough parking will be needed for the county office and the neighboring Art Share L.A. nonprofit organization. The existing offices were built in the 1960s.

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To make it financially feasible, officials want additional uses proposed — such as housing, office space or retail — which the developer could lease out.

In October, the L.A. County teamed with Trammell Crow Company to break ground on a $453 million county land redevelopment project in Koreatown. Though much larger in scale, the objective was similar: provide new office space for county departments, maximize density and create new uses.

The Arts District site is in the heart of the rapidly changing neighborhood, near a number of large developments in the works. Carmel Partners’ 520 Mateo https://therealdeal.com/la/2018/06/21/carmel-partners-reaches-higher-at-520-mateo-project-in-arts-district/ project is a few blocks southeast of the site. Bolour and Associates’ 310-unit live-work complex on South Colyton Street is also nearby. [Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch