AvalonBay, Abode chosen to redevelop West LA Civic Center

Mixed-use project includes 926 residential units, nearly half set aside as affordable

Abode’s Robin Hughes and Avalon’s Tim Naughton with a rendering of the project (iStock)
Abode’s Robin Hughes and Avalon’s Tim Naughton with a rendering of the project (iStock)

AvalonBay Communities and Abode Communities will redevelop the eight-acre West Los Angeles Civic Center site, a sprawling mixed-use project that will include residential, office and retail components.

Los Angeles County and the city of L.A. selected the developers following a months-long process to determine who would lead the effort to transform the mid-century municipal office and community complex, according to Urbanize.

Abode is a nonprofit developer, and the project’s 926 residential units will include 431 reserved at “affordable” and “moderate-income” levels. There will also be a 73,400-square-foot municipal office building along with 41,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The complex will include the redevelopment of a 20,900-square-foot community center on site. The West L.A. Courthouse would be repurposed as an arts space.

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AvalonBay and Abode’s proposal includes 118,000 square feet of publicly available open space. Renderings depict contemporary-styled structures with glass-facades around a central plaza space.

The development partners and the city will begin negotiations over certain details as well as the community consultation process with the goal of signing a development agreement by March.

In March 2020, the county provided Abode with $2 million in funding for to help build a 77-unit affordable housing project in Boyle Heights.

AvalonBay closed two large deals in L.A. last year: is secured a $167 million construction loan for a project set to rise in the Arts District and it sold an apartment building in Venice for $67 million. [Urbanize] ­— Dennis Lynch