Mitsui Fudosan America Gets Nod for DTLA apartment tower

Mitsui Fudosan America has won approval to build a 50-story apartment tower in Downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles City Council voted to let the unit of Tokyo-based Mitsui Fudosan build a 580-unit highrise at 754 South Hope Street, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It will replace a parking lot and garage.

Plans for the new tower call for 580 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments above 7,500-square-feet of ground floor shops and restaurants. An above-grade parking garage will serve 640 cars, which could be converted later to another 189 apartments.

The project, designed by San Francisco-based Gensler, will be clad in glass, concrete and aluminum, with a Mid-Century Modern look. The stepped building, with prominent stacks of white balconies, would shift away from Hope Street, creating terrace decks for residents.

The 555,000-square-foot building will include 65,000 square feet of open space, plus a pool, gym, spa and juice bar, as well as yoga and fitness areas and barbecue and dining areas. It would offer a dog run and pet area.

Mitsui Fudosan America will pay $4.9 million for development rights for more floor area. The firm will contribute another $4.9 million into a Council District 14 trust fund for affordable housing development.

The developer, which proposed the project in 2017 as a 44-story tower, beat back three appeals that tried to block it on environmental grounds.

Creed LA and the Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, both tied to construction trade unions, had argued the project’s environmental impact report contained numerous deficiencies.

The City Council, in approving the project, also voted to reject the appeals.

Digital Realty, the owner of an abutting parking garage which is planning to replace it with a 13-story data center, withdrew its appeal in May.

The apartment building, to be called 8th Grand and Hope, would be among the first in a new series of Downtown towers planned south of 7th Street. It’s not clear when the developer aims to break ground.

The approval comes on the heels of the 42-story, 438-unit apartment highrise developed by Mitsui Fudosan America, which it opened in March at 732 South Figueroa Street.

National Real Estate Advisors also plans to build a 53-story, 466-unit highrise above The Bloc’s parking garage at 700 South Flower Street, in the Financial District.

— Dana Bartholomew