WPH Holdings Gains Approval for Long Beach Apartment Tower

WPH Holdings was approved to build a 21-story apartment tower in Long Beach.

The Downtown Los Angeles-based developer got the nod from the City Council to construct the 203-unit complex at 615 East Ocean Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would replace the Long Beach Cafe, which opened in 1970 and closed during the pandemic.

Plans call for 203 one- and two-bedroom apartments above a fully automated parking garage for 261 cars and 41 bicycles.

WPH will employ density bonus incentives for a larger building than allowed by local zoning rules in exchange for 13 affordable apartments for very low-income households.

The white tower with floor-to-ceiling windows, designed by locally based Studio One Eleven will include common areas on the ground, 14th and 15th floors. In addition to outdoor decks, the complex will have a rooftop pool, fitness center, lounge and club rooms.

A third of the apartments will have balconies.

The 0.4-acre cafe property is owned by a limited liability company named after its address, which bought the property in 2021 for $6.2 million.

A timeline for the project was not disclosed.

The tower joins a growing number of new highrise developments near the waterfront of L.A. County’s second-largest city. It will rise 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 was also completed last year for a new highrise from Vancouver-based developer Onni Group at the intersection of Broadway and Long Beach Boulevard.

WPH Holdings also plans to build a 135-unit affordable apartment complex, as well as a 97-unit senior affordable housing complex, in Sun Valley, according to Urbanize.

— Dana Bartholomew