Marks Moves Ahead With Art Deco Tower on the Miracle Mile

The family of real estate broker Walter Marks has moved forward with plans to redevelop vintage buildings on the Miracle Mile with a 42-story Art Deco-inspired housing tower.

Walter N. Marks Inc., run by Walter Marks III, has had an environmental study published for its 448-unit tower at 5411 Wilshire Boulevard, in Mid-Wilshire, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The 477,000-square-foot highrise named Mirabel would replace a 1930s commercial building containing a Staples office supply store, while preserving the Art Deco facade of the Sontag Drug Store at Wilshire and Cloverdale Avenue.

Plans call for 348 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments above automated parking for 309 cars and 12,800 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants.

Marks would employ density bonus incentives for more floor area than allowed by local zoning rules in exchange for 29 affordable apartments for very low-income households.

The 530-foot curving glass tower, designed by Keating of Downtown L.A., would include floor-to-ceiling windows, with design motifs from the Streamline Moderne period of the late 1920s and 1930s, according to the architect and project renderings.

The apartment complex, in the works since at least 2019, would include a family pool, lap pool, a private rooftop deck and lounge, a two-lane bowling alley, golf simulator, dog park, VR rooms, wine-tasting counter and a yoga studio.

The Marks family has owned the property for more than a half century. It aims to convert the Sontag Drug Store into a Deco-styled restaurant of the same name.

Pending approvals, the $500 million project could break ground as early as next year, a block from Metro’s under-construction Wilshire/La Brea Purple Line subway station. Construction is expected to take 36 months.

It would join a similar 45-story, Art Deco-inspired tower from Vancouver-based Onni Group at 5350-5376 Wilshire Boulevard.

Walter N. Marks Inc., founded in 1956, is perhaps best known as the owner of the Helms Bakery campus. The firm owns and manages about 500,000 square feet of commercial and retail properties in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Culver City, according to its LinkedIn page and state real estate records.

The company has proposed a more modest mixed-use residential development for a parking lot across Venice Boulevard from the Helms complex at 8787 Venice Boulevard in Mid-City, according to Urbanize.

— Dana Bartholomew