Trending
Stockdale Capital gets early green light for 140K sf medical tower near Cedars-Sinai
12-story office building approved by planning commission over strong neighborhood opposition
A Los Angeles developer has won a preliminary go-ahead to build a 12-story medical office building at Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards, overriding strong neighborhood opposition.
Stockdale Capital Partners, based in Westwood, has been approved by the Los Angeles Planning Commission to construct a 140,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 656 San Vicente Blvd. in Carthay, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
The trapezoid-shaped building would require the demolition of a commercial building now containing a 10,000-square-foot Big 5 Sporting Goods store. Stockdale paid $23 million for the property in 2016.
Plans for the controversial project near Beverly Grove call for a 230-foot tall building with 5,000 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants and podium parking for 418 cars.
The $250-million medical office tower, designed by Downtown-based ZGF Architects, has floor-to-ceiling walls of glass, with rounded corners with a nod to Streamline Moderne. Outdoor terraces carved up the San Vicente side would contain green landscaping against its reflective windows.
The 656 San Vicente project, in the making five years about a mile south of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was opposed during three failed appeals.
Appellants included the union-affiliated Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, the Beverly Wilshire Homeowners’ Association and attorney Michael Yadegari, supported by residents of the surrounding neighborhood.
Each argued the plan violated the California Environmental Quality Act and local zoning regulations, and urged the planning commission to overturn an approval of the project’s vesting tentative tract map. Neighbors focused on potential traffic congestion and street parking.
Commissioners followed a staff recommendation to deny all three appeals, citing a lack of evidence to support their claims.
The medical office tower is among large new developments in the works along San Vicente north of Wilshire Boulevard, including a new patient tower at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to Urbanize. The nine-story, 405,000-square-foot building, to replace a parking lot and a medical building, would contain 203 beds.
Developer and mayoral candidate Rick Caruso has proposed a 16-story apartment tower at the intersection with La Cienega Boulevard. A 19-story residential tower is in the works on the grounds of Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Cathedral at 333 San Vicente Blvd.
Stockdale Capital has been on a trading spree. In May, it sold two medical offices in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, totaling 107,000 square feet, for $156 million. At the same time, it bought a 49,000-square-foot medical office building in Beverly Hills fully leased to Cedars Sinai.
In February, it bought the century-old Los Angeles Athletic Club in Downtown for undisclosed terms. And in May, it paid $75 million for the 175-room J.W. Marriott Le Merigot hotel in Santa Monica.
[Urbanize Los Angeles] – Dana Bartholomew