Going up: Koreatown tower project developers boost plans

A development partnership that wants to build a residential tower in Koreatown thinks bigger is better.

Townline and Forme Development have scaled up their plans, going from 29 floors to 40 and from 252 apartments to 367, according to Urbanize.

The revision for the project at 550 Shatto Place would include 42 units set aside as affordable, according to the report.

The new proposal calls for 36,000 square feet of office and retail space on the ground floor, and in an adjoining church building.

The partners filed their new plans earlier this month with the city Department of City Planning. They previously planned to use entitlements through the city’s Transit Oriented Communities program, but now seek a zoning change and a general plan amendment.

They filed the original plans in July 2018 and in May 2019 sought to expedite the project through the state’s environmental review process via a designation as a Sustainable Communities project.

Gensler is designing the project. The tower is contemporary in design with balconies and fins on the façade. There is a small grass plaza at the ground floor connecting it to the neighboring church.

The developers purchased the development property from a trust in 2017 for $20 million.

The duo has also proposed a 27-story mixed-use tower near Chinatown’s Central Plaza. [Urbanize] ­— Dennis Lynch