Downtown Los Angeles to Receive Mixed-Use Tower Complex

A new hotel and residential complex in Downtown Los Angeles is heading toward construction.

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has given the green light to a proposal from L.A.-based Jade Enterprises to build the South Park Towers, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The AC Martin-designed project would include two high-rise towers of 22 and 23 stories rising about 260 feet, more or less, above the street.

The property at 1600 South Flower Street, bounded by Venice Boulevard, Hope Street and the I-10 freeway, would include a 300-room hotel, 250 residential units, 3,200 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space, 10,000 square feet of medical offices and parking for 288 vehicles. Residents and hotel guests would have access to amenity decks at the podium and roof levels as well as multiple fitness centers and meeting rooms.

The hotel is intended to complement the Los Angeles Convention Center, owned by the City of Los Angeles, next door, which has been in a holding pattern for an expansion project for some time. That endeavor will seemingly be pushed until after the 2028 Olympics amid an increasing budget, diminished staff and rising budget costs.

An exact start date for construction of the mixed-use South Park Towers complex has not been announced, though documents approved by the City Council indicate it would occur over a 32-month period. The City Council still needs to sign off on entitlements for the project.

The Planning Commission was also asked to consider an appeal from Faramarz “Fred” Yadegar, the owner of a property at 1721 South Flower Street on the other side of the freeway. Yadegar, acting as trustee of the T.O.Y. Family Trust, argued that the South Park Towers plan violates an agreement dating back to the 1980s that requires that parking for his land be provided at the South Park Towers site.

The commission denied the appeal, concluding that the South Park Towers project would indeed uphold the agreement during and after construction of the mixed-use complex.

— Chris Malone Méndez