Mitsui Fudosan goes bigger and taller at DTLA tower project

The firm has added about 140 residential units to its original plan and another 5 stories

Mutsui Fudosan America CEO John Westerfield and a new rendering of the Eighth, Grand, and Hope project via Gensler
Mutsui Fudosan America CEO John Westerfield and a new rendering of the Eighth, Grand, and Hope project via Gensler

Developer Mitsui Fudosan America is upsizing its Downtown Los Angeles tower in a big way.

The new design for the complex at 754 South Hope Street will now be 45 stories instead of 40 and will have 547 residential units up from 409, according to Curbed. The new information came amid a review of the environmental impact of the project’s parking lot and garage.

The tower’s design will also change. It will include stepbacks that allow for landscaped terraces on the building, instead of the uniform rectangular structure first planned in 2017.

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Mitsui Fudosan America — the U.S. arm of the Japanese development giant — is also mulling the addition of a 37,000-square-foot charter elementary school. Instead of the school, the developer could opt to add and additional 33 units of housing.

Developers in L.A. are on track to deliver 8,000 apartments to the Downtown L.A. market this year, as many of the large projects planned in recent years come online.

Despite the housing shortage, there are concerns of oversupply — agents are in fierce competition to fill apartments and are advertising concessions like discounts on rent and parking.

Mitsui Fudosan is planning another tower a couple of blocks away known as 8th & Fig, but is facing stiff opposition from labor groups. A carpenters union filed a lawsuit against the project in March. The developer scaled back that project to meet environmental requirements mandated by a city environmental review. [Curbed]Dennis Lynch