Boulevard Partners plans 68-unit TOC project in Little Tokyo

Residents will have access to new Orange Line station 2 blocks away

Boulevard Partners Managing Partner Scott A. Ginsburg and 600-622 E. 1st Street (Credit: Google Maps and 826 LA)
Boulevard Partners Managing Partner Scott A. Ginsburg and 600-622 E. 1st Street (Credit: Google Maps and 826 LA)

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.

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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.