Boulevard Partners is planning a 68-unit Transit-Oriented Communities project in Little Tokyo.
The five-story building is slated for 600-622 East 1st Street at the edge of the Arts District. A permit application says it will include underground parking and ground-floor retail. Boulevard Partners, based on the Westside, describes it as an affordable housing apartment building, although the division of units between market-rate and affordable isn’t clear.
The firm did not return requests for comment in time for publication.
Boulevard purchased the property four-and-a-half months ago for $10.7 million. It’s now home to a car wash and a handful of retail spaces.
The site is less than 1,000 feet away from the Metro’s existing Little Tokyo/Arts District Orange Line station, making it eligible for Tier 4 TOC bonuses, the steepest available through the program. Metro is moving that station to the corner of Central Avenue and 1st Street, even closer to Boulevard’s site.
That will allow Boulevard to qualify for an 80 percent density bonus over as-of-right zoning by making between 11-25 percent of the units affordable, depending on affordability level.
The TOC program has proved popular with developers around the city and particularly with small-lot developers looking to maximize their number of units.
Little Tokyo is close to Downtown L.A. proper, the Arts District, and Chinatown. It’s seeing a steady investment and development.
Fashion merchant Doe Young Lee is planning to overhaul the Little Tokyo Galleria shopping center into a housing complex, a few blocks from Boulevard’s site.