Filipinotown strip mall eyed for residential

93-unit complex would replace two-story center on W. Temple, across from recently opened Target

Renderings of 1925 W. Temple Street (West Temple Plaza)
Renderings of 1925 W. Temple Street (West Temple Plaza)

A Beverly Hills-based developer wants to demolish a strip mall in Historic Filipinotown to build a 93-unit apartment complex.
An entity affiliated with Axiom Real Estate Investment filed plans for the project with the City of Los Angeles earlier this month, according to Urbanize.

The apartment complex would rise at 1925 W. Temple Street. The two-story retail complex currently there totals about 23,000 square feet. A parking lot takes up about half of the development site.

Axiom is requesting entitlements through the city’s Transit Oriented Communities program — greater floor area, increased height and increased density. The TOC program provides those entitlements for projects near transit and that include a percentage of affordable units.

In this case, Axiom plans to reserve eight apartments at the “extremely low-income” level. The firm also wants to include live/work units on the ground floor of the five-story building. There would also be 112 parking spaces in a subterranean garage.

The project is one large building, but broken into sections with second-story courtyards planned among them. There appears to be a rooftop lounge space also planned.

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The TOC program has proven popular for infill projects in L.A.’s denser neighborhoods, since many properties are close enough to bus or train lines to qualify for entitlements.

Urban Stearns in 2019 requested TOC entitlements for a 60-unit project a few blocks away on N. Alvarado Street.

A handful of other projects are in the works or recently built nearby. Trammel Crow Residential last year completed a 200-unit complex just across the street at 1910 W. Temple Street. The complex includes a 22,000-square-foot Target store on the ground floor.

Restore Neighborhoods L.A. and Genesis L.A. are working on an 18-unit permanent supportive housing project not far away at 405 N. Westlake Avenue. A 73-unit complex is also in the works on N. Alvarado Street.

[Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch