CA Ventures looks to build housing for USC students

Chicago developer plans large apartment complex near campus

CA Ventures CEO Tom Scott and an aerial view of the block between Figueora, Flower, 31st and 33rd Streets, in Los Angeles' University Park neighborhood (Taylor Johnson Public Relations, CA Ventures, Google Maps)
CA Ventures CEO Tom Scott and an aerial view of the block between Figueora, Flower, 31st and 33rd Streets, in Los Angeles' University Park neighborhood (Taylor Johnson Public Relations, CA Ventures, Google Maps)

CA Ventures, a prominent Chicago-based firm that specializes in senior and student housing, has plans for a major housing project near USC — and one of its existing student housing buildings. 

The firm wants to build a seven-story, roughly 486,000-square-foot building on a block between Figueora, Flower, 31st and 33rd Streets, in L.A.’s University Park neighborhood. The location is a couple blocks northeast of USC’s main campus, and immediately west of the 110 Freeway. 

The project includes 418 total units and 84 low income units, as well as some commercial space, according to a description filed with the city’s Planning Department on Tuesday. 

CA Ventures did not respond to an inquiry about the project, but it seems to fit with the development firm’s modus operandi. CA began in 2004 with a focus on investing in and operating student apartments near major universities, and has since built dozens of its own projects across the U.S. and in Europe, including high-end student apartment buildings in State College, Pennsylvania; Iowa City; Tempe, Arizona; and Ann Arbor. The firm’s international student projects include properties in Krakow, Moscow and Bogota.  

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Read more

The Figueroa project would be the firm’s second venture into the market around USC. The company opened Icon Plaza, a 223-unit apartment building a couple blocks from the new proposed site, in 2012. Last fall, Blue Vista Capital listed another student housing project in the same area called University Gateway that it had bought a decade earlier for more than $200 million. 

CA also develops industrial properties and senior living communities around the country. Earlier this month, the firm listed a nearly 2-acre site in Warner Center, at the west end of L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, that it bought in late 2021. That site is already entitled for a 200,000-square-foot senior housing project.