Kirk Douglas Theatre to share block with mixed-use apartments

Culver City complex will include 34 units, retail and restaurants

REthink Development's Steve Edwards with 9763 Culver Blvd and 9814 Washington Blvd
REthink Development's Steve Edwards with 9763 Culver Blvd and 9814 Washington Blvd (LinkedIn, Getty, Brooks + Scarpa)

A local developer has filed plans to build a 34-unit, mixed-use complex next to the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

REthink Development, based in the city, has proposed constructing a pair of three- and four-story buildings at 9763 Culver Boulevard and 9814 Washington Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would require demolishing a single-family home.

The developer, which won rights to the properties through a public request for proposals, aims to build two buildings linked by open-air bridges. It could break ground by April of next year.

The Culver Theatre Residences would include 34 studio and one-bedroom apartments, earth with 350 to 700 square feet.

Density bonus incentives would permit a larger complex than zoning rules allow in exchange for two affordable apartments for very low-income households, and four units set aside for workforce housing.

The apartments would be built above 2,724 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants facing Washington Boulevard. Another 2,600 square feet would serve Center Theatre Group, which operates the Kirk Douglas Theatre, facing Culver. Plans don’t seem to include parking.

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The Culver Theatre Residences project, designed by Brooks + Scarpa of Santa Monica, would be built out of prefabricated modular units over 18 months. One building would be coated in charcoal, the other in a tiki-mat beige, with small vertical windows.

The long-vacant development site was primed more than a decade ago to become the new home of the Jazz Bakery, which had Frank Gehry design its permanent building. After those plans fell through, Jazz Bakery set up shop in Santa Monica.

A piece of the Culver City property was acquired by Center Theatre Group in 2020, which worked with the city to find a developer for the site.

The Kirk Douglas Theatre is a 317-seat venue for performing arts. Center Theatre Group also runs the much larger Ahmanson Theater and Mark Taper Forum in the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles.

Dana Bartholomew

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