Flip this strip mall: Developer plans apartments on former retail site in El Monte

Southland Real Estate Group to build 83 units off Interstate 10

Renderings of the project (City of El Monte, Southland Real Estate Group)
Renderings of the project (City of El Monte, Southland Real Estate Group)

Developer Southland Real Estate Group is looking to redevelop a largely vacant 2.8 acres in El Monte with an 83-unit apartment complex.

Details of the project were revealed in state-mandated environmental review documents published by the City of El Monte, according to Urbanize. The project site is spread across 11640-11710 and 11730 Valley Boulevard.

Plans call for a handful of townhouse-style buildings and a larger four-story apartment complex.

The apartment building would feature 43 units on about an acre, with 94 parking spaces on the ground floor. The building would also house the complex’s amenities, including a community room, garden, yoga area, and barbecue pit.

The eight townhouse-style buildings would have 40 apartments and 97 parking spaces between them on the remaining 1.8 acres.

Southland demolished a low-rise commercial building on the project site between late 2017 and early 2018. The site is on a commercial strip off Interstate 10 neighboring a handful of take-out restaurants and other businesses.

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The rear of the property borders a single-family residential neighborhood. Down the street are two supermarkets and a handful of other strip malls and shopping centers.

Construction on the new development is expected to span two years, starting in the first quarter of next year and wrapping in the first quarter of 2024, according to Urbanize.

Like many of the surrounding communities, El Monte is mostly a mix of residential communities and industrial property. The city is home to large, highly-sought-after logistics properties. Goodman Group has developed facilities as large as 1.2 million square feet in the city.

El Monte also is home to Longo Toyota, a 50-acre operation that’s known as one of the largest dealer of the auto brand in the U.S. That’s a key source of revenue, thanks to the city’s slice of sales tax, and officials have been trying to bring in more by pushing to develop a marijuana sector, although that has seen some pushback.

[Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch