Townline and Forme Development have trimmed the towering height of a proposed apartment building in Koreatown, which won a preliminary nod for eight stories.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved the latest plan by the Vancouver-based developers for a 318-unit complex at 550 South Shatto Place, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
Initial plans by the Canadian joint venture called for a 32-story building in 2018 and a 40-story, 367-unit tower approved by the City Council three years later. The apartments would be built next to the former First English Evangelical Lutheran Church at Shatto and 6th Street.
It’s not clear why the developers downsized the project.
Plans call for an eight-story building with 318 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments above a two-level parking garage for 194 cars. About 21,000 square feet of shops, restaurants or offices would partially take up the 89-year-old church building included in the project.
The developers employed density bonus incentives to permit a taller building than allowed by zoning rules in exchange for 35 affordable apartments for very low-income households.
The beige complex, designed by Downtown-based KTGY, would include large windows and external balconies, with floor-to-ceiling windows on the ground floor, according to a rendering.
Omgivning, based in Elysian Park, designed the adaptive-reuse of the Spanish Colonial Revival church, built in 1936 and later used as a gym by the New Covenant Academy, a private school.
A cost and timeline for the project were not disclosed. Construction is expected to take 18 months.
Townline and Forme Development have also teamed up for a proposed 23-story, 178-unit highrise at 942 Broadway, in Chinatown, which was slated to break ground in 2021, according to Urbanize. It remains a dirt lot.
Townline, founded by Rick Ilich in 1981, has built a range of residential properties, from multifamily to townhomes and single-family homes, according to its LinkedIn page.
Forme Development, founded by Damon Chan in 2017, focuses on mixed-use, high-rise multi-family residential, retail and office buildings along the West Coast, with offices in Vancouver and Los Angeles.
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