Big plans for San Pedro’s Harbor House: micro-apartments

Parkview Management Group wants to include micro-units in its apartment conversion of the historic Harbor View House in San Pedro.

Documents the firm filed with the city show that the Sherman Oaks-based firm is asking the city to allow units as small as 313 square feet, well below the 450 square feet currently allowed by law. A 300-square-foot apartment is about the size of a small hotel room.

Parkview wants to create 100 units at the former nursing home. The micro-units would be mixed in with larger units. The average unit size across the building would be 556 square feet, also below the 750 square feet allowed by law.

Parkview first filed plans to convert the building in April, when it was still actively the largest mental health facility in the state. Those plans included setting aside eight units for low-income renters. Those units are not mentioned in the new filing.

Commercial space has been expanded from that original filing as well, from 15,000 square feet to 21,250 square feet. The extra square footage could be left-over after downsizing the apartments upstairs.

Micro-unit developments aren’t widespread in Los Angeles, although a few have popped up around the city. Co-working firm Ollie is converting the Cecil Hotel in Downtown L.A. over to a co-living building with micro-units. HQ Group is converting a motel in Culver City to a micro-unit building as well.