Residential
Los Angeles
Cypress Equity to build 176 apartments in Echo Park
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Champion rebuffs union appeal to build 104 apartments in Echo Park
Planning Commission affirms project on Sunset Boulevard
Champion Real Estate has beat back a union appeal and now will move ahead with scaled-back plans to build a mixed-use, 104-unit apartment complex in Echo Park.
The Santa Monica-based developer survived the appeal to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission for its six-story building at 1485-1503 Sunset Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
Plans now call for 104 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments atop 8,000 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants. A two-level underground garage would serve 101 cars.
The proposal was scaled back from a 2021 plan to build 136 apartments, using the city’s Transit Oriented Communities incentives to construct a larger building in exchange for 15 affordable apartments for tenants who earn extremely low incomes.
That plan sank when Champion withdrew plans to convert an unbuilt portion of McDuff Street into a private driveway, reducing the buildable size of the project.
It’s not clear if the latest plans include an affordable housing component.
The project, designed by Downtown-based AC Martin, would be clad out front in Prussian blue ribbed metal panels, with cornflower and royal blue stucco insets. The rear half of the building would be white stucco. Curbside businesses would have floor-to-ceiling walls of glass.
The building would include terraces atop the first-floor podium and the fifth floor, rooftop deck and a central courtyard with a swimming pool.
The project’s hearing before the commission came as a result of an appeal submitted by SAFER, an affiliate of Laborers International Union of North America Local 270, according to Urbanize.
The union had argued the project should not be approved, and should be subjected to further scrutiny under the California Environmental Quality Act. Planning staff, citing a lack of evidence, recommended the commission deny the appeal.
The apartment complex is the latest development planned for the low-slung stretch of Sunset Boulevard that winds its way through Echo Park. It joins similar mixed-use apartment projects from Holland Partner Group, Cypress Equity Investments and Aragon Properties.
Last month, Champion Real Estate sold a 24-unit student housing complex at 2652-2656 Ellendale Place near USC for $20.5 million.
Champion Real Estate was founded in 1987 by investor/developer Bob Champion, its CEO, and is the main operating business within the Champion family office, according to its website.
Since 1995, it has completed 3 million square feet of projects, valued at more than $2 billion. Its investment portfolio includes properties across Southern California, Seattle and Nashville, plus other select metropolitan markets.
In 2020, it won approval for plans to build a 30-story, 269-unit tower in Hollywood, after strong opposition from local residents.
— Dana Bartholomew
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