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Westwood condo highrise derailed by a Metro subway

Transit agency maintains Indivest’s approved project should not receive construction permits

A rendering of the 29-story condominium tower in Westwood and Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz (Robert A.M. Stern, Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Koretz)
A rendering of the 29-story condominium tower in Westwood and Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz (Robert A.M. Stern, Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Koretz)

The developer of an approved 29-story condominium tower in Westwood has run smack into an oncoming subway.

Indivest, based in the West L.A. neighborhood, was approved by Los Angeles in 2010 to build the Flatiron-inspired tower at 10955 Wilshire Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. But the project has run into an unexpected obstacle: Metro’s D Line extension.

This has caused a disagreement between the city and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, over whether the developer can pull the permits for its project.

Indivest must receive clearances from Metro prior to pulling permits to begin construction on the 144-unit tower, named Gayley at Wilshire.

The project sits next to the new Westwood/UCLA Station, as well as a future entrance to the underground stop from a UCLA-owned property next to the tower site.

L.A. City Councilmember Paul Koretz has sided with the developer, saying its condominium tower was approved two years before the final environmental impact report for the D Line extension was certified by the Metro board in 2012.

That study acknowledged that the Wilshire Gayley development was planned within the project corridor, according to a motion Koretz submitted to the City Council on Aug. 26.

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The developer began the building permit process with the city in 2018 – three years before the final leg of the D Line extension broke ground.

Metro, says Koretz, has remained firm in its position that the city should not issue building permits for the project. While the technical analysis has been completed, Metro has maintained its position that permits should not be issued for the project.

As a result, the developer and the transportation agency hired a third-party consultant to conduct a technical analysis relating to the designs of the station and the tower, as well as their impacts on each other.

The developer has concluded that Metro may have designed the new subway station without considering the Wilshire Gayley development.

While Metro has declined to clear construction of the tower, Indivest is faced with a deadline to break ground on the project, which was approved through a vesting tentative tract map that is scheduled to expire in July 2023.

“Now that an additional year of delay has occurred to complete the third-party analysis, Metro now claims that the analysis is insufficient,” reads the motion by Koretz. “In addition, Metro has asserted that the developer must sue the city and Metro to resolve the matter; when the developer sought judicial relief against Metro, Metro filed a motion insisting that the city must be brought into the case because the permits Metro has refused to clear are city permits.”

— Dana Bartholomew

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