Developer Benjamin Golshani of VNB has beat back an appeal to block his plan to build 214 apartments in Van Nuys.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission voted to reject the appeal against the Historic South-Central-based developer’s proposed five-story complex at 7115-7131 North Van Nuys Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
It would replace two buildings housing a Sizzler steakhouse and a Chios Peruvian Grill, south of Sherman Way. The Planning Commission had approved the project in June
SAFER, an affiliate of Laborers International Union of North America Local 270, had appealed the development on grounds it would have unanticipated environmental impacts and should be subject to further study.
A city staff report said SAFER didn’t offer evidence to support its claims.
Plans by VNB call for 214 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments above 15,800 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants. Underground parking would serve 238 cars.
The developer will employ Transit Oriented Communities incentives to allow a taller building with more apartments than allowed by zoning rules in exchange for 24 affordable units for extremely low-income households.
The brown, white and Cape Cod-blue complex, designed by Valley Village-based Khorramian Group Architects, is clad in stucco and steel and has numerous balconies and cutouts, with tree-lined decks above the first floor and on the roof.
An unidentified trust bought the site in 2011 for $950,000. In 2019, Golshani, also president of a Downtown-based linen company, loaned the trust $1.4 million.
The proposed complex is one of two large mixed-use apartment buildings planned near the busy intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way, according to Urbanize.
Across the street, Alliant Strategic Development broke ground earlier this year on a six-story, 322-unit apartment complex on an L-shaped site at 7050 Van Nuys Boulevard.
— Dana Bartholomew
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