Worthe Plans 60 Apartments in Santa Monica

Worthe Real Estate Group wants to replace a shuttered bank in Santa Monica with 60 apartments.

The Santa Monica-based developer led by Jeff Worthe has filed preliminary plans to build a five-story complex at 407 Colorado Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

It would replace a single-story building that once housed Bank of the West, which closed in 2017 at Colorado and 4th Street, across from Metro’s Downtown Santa Monica Station.

Worthe Plans 60 Apartments in Santa Monica — Rendering of plans for 407 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica (Wolcott Architecture)

Plans call for a 60-foot-tall building with 60 studio and one-bedroom apartments atop 6,900 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants. It would include a landscaped rooftop deck, two small courtyards, and on-site parking for an unspecified number of cars.

Worthe aims to employ density bonus incentives to build a taller building than zoning rules allow in exchange for six affordable housing units.

The gray, blue and ochre project, designed by Los Feliz-based Wolcott Architecture, would be clad in metal panels, stucco and wood. Floor-to-ceiling paned windows would be flanked by banks of windowed balconies.

The proposed building comes on the heels of a proposed 570-unit apartment complex at 1632-1640 5th Street, on the other side of Downtown Santa Monica Station.

Worthe also behind a $350 million proposal on Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, which would create a 300,000-square-foot complex designed by Frank Gehry to include a120-room hotel, 100 apartments, a museum and public overlook, along with shops and restaurants.

This month, Worthe Real Estate Group and investment firm Stockbridge have closed their $175 million acquisition of the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, after obtaining a $480 million loan.

Worthe, founded in 1967, owns more than 7 million square feet of commercial and residential property across Greater Los Angeles, according to its website.

— Dana Bartholomew