Major transit-oriented project slated for South LA

Local investor plans 126 units near Metro’s La Cienega/Jefferson station

5760 West Obama Boulevard (Daryoush Safai, Getty)
5760 West Obama Boulevard (Daryoush Safai, Getty)

A development team has filed plans for a large mixed-use project in the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw neighborhood of South L.A., a part of the city that’s seeing increasing attention from developers.

The proposal, which was registered with the Los Angeles City Planning Department in late December, comes from local investor Farzad Nourollah in conjunction with land use attorneys and the Santa Monica architect Daryoush Safail. The proposal is for a six-story, 132,000-square-foot building that would include 126 residential units.

The property is located at 5760 West Obama Boulevard, less than a half mile south of the La Cienega/Jefferson Metro station. The developers are seeking density bonuses in line with the city’s Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program, which provides certain incentives to projects located near public transportation. In line with TOC requirements, the project would include 15 affordable units.

The plans also call for about 20,000 square feet of commercial space and more than 100 underground parking spaces. The site currently houses a decades-old one-story commercial building that has recently been rented by a hair salon and pizza restaurant.

Records show that Nourollah’s company bought the site in 2015 for $3.6 million.

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Plans for the site add to a development boom occurring in South L.A. that has been driven in part by another new Metro line. The Crenshaw/LAX K line, a couple miles east of the Obama Boulevard project, partially opened in October and has already helped prompt 5,000 planned units, as well as gentrification concerns.

“The building beside me is now $2.5 million,” one Crenshaw Boulevard store owner told the L.A. Times this fall. “A couple of years ago it was $535,000.”

Much of the region’s redevelopment is coming from CIM Group, which has dozens of residential and commercial projects in nearby West Adams and Jefferson Park.

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