Joint venture sees green in planned apartment complex at Mid-City pink houses site

Pink House Project, rendering of Hello Saturn, Boaz Miodovsky of Ketter, and Max Sharkansky of Trion Properties
Pink House Project, rendering of Hello Saturn, Boaz Miodovsky of Ketter, and Max Sharkansky of Trion Properties

The hot pink houses are gone from Mid-City, but a joint venture that just acquired the property has big plans for an apartment complex there.

West Hollywood-based Trion Properties and Van Nuys-based Ketter Group want to build a 58-unit development at the 1500 Hi Point St. location, according to Curbed.

The duo paid $7.4 million for the site from Li Investments, which had purchased it last year.

City officials had already approved a 45 unit, 82,000-square-foot building at the location that Li Investments was going to dub “Hello Saturn” for its proximity to Saturn Street. It was never built.

The new joint venture is hoping to squeeze additional one-, two-, and three-bedroom units out of the property through the city’s Transit-Oriented Communities program. The program allows market-rate developers to upsize their projects provided they set aside a certain number of units as affordable, and provided the developments are near a public transit hub.

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Ketter is slated to use its own architecture firm to build the property, according to the Curbed report.

The property had gotten attention for its row of super bright pink houses, It had been an art installation by Manny Mo, who goes by “The Most Famous Artist,” in collaboration with Culver City-based M Rad Architecture.

The art project was a hit on social media but some neighbors saw red over the hot pink houses. The Faircrest Heights Neighborhood Association called for a more subdued color. The Pico Neighborhood Council, meanwhile, balked that they were never warned about the flashy installation.

The homes have since been cleared from the site. [Curbed]Matthew Blake