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WPH Holdings looks to build 21-story apartment tower in Long Beach
203-unit complex would replace a 53-year-old cafe that closed in pandemic
WPH Holdings is poised to build a 21-story apartment tower in Long Beach.
The Downtown Los Angeles-based developer plans to build a 203-unit complex at 615 East Ocean Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles and the Long Beach Post reported. It would replace the Long Beach Cafe, built in 1970, which closed during the pandemic.
The Long Beach Planning Commission will decide Nov. 2 on whether to approve the highrise.
Plans call for 203 apartments, based on a density bonus in exchange for 12 units set aside for low-income households. Because the project was submitted last year, WPH Holdings is required to make 6 percent of the apartments affordable, instead of 11 percent now required by the law.
The white building with floor-to-ceiling windows would include parking for 261 cars at a fully automated garage, plus 41 bicycle parking spots.
The tower, designed by locally based Studio One Eleven, would include common areas for residents, including part of the ground-floor, the 14th and 15th floors, and a rooftop pool deck.
The 0.4-acre closed cafe property is owned by a limited liability company named after its address, which bought the property in 2021 for $6.2 million. A company under that name doesn’t appear in state business records. City records list the project applicant as WPH Holdings, according to Urbanize.
The proposed tower joins a growing number of new highrise developments in L.A. County’s second largest city. It sits a block west of the 35-story Shoreline Gateway, which opened in late 2021 as the tallest building in Long Beach, and then became mired in a construction-related lawsuit.
Construction is also in the last stages for a 432-unit high-rise by Vancouver-based Onni Group at Broadway and Long Beach Boulevard.
In 2021, WPH Holdings filed plans to build a 135-unit apartment complex in Sun Valley.
— Dana Bartholomew