Developer Applies to Replace Koreatown Home With Apartments

For the second time this decade, a single-family home in Koreatown appears poised to become a new multifamily building.

Project applicant Jafar Shahbaz has filed plans with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning for the construction of a six-story building with 16 two-bedroom apartments at 810 South Wilton Place, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The residences would be built atop parking for five vehicles.

Shahbaz is seeking entitlements including Transit-Oriented Communities incentives, which would allow for a larger structure than what zoning rules would normally permit. In exchange for the zoning loophole, two of the apartments would be set aside for rent as affordable housing for extremely-low-income households. Los Angeles County defines “extremely-low-income” as one person making a maximum of $31,850 annually, or $45,450 for a household of four. The property sits approximately half a mile away from the Metro D Line stop at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.

The 810 South Wilton site is one block south of another six-story, 25-unit apartment building at 726 South Wilton Place. That property, known as the Wilton apartments, features co-living units and opened to renters in 2024.

It isn’t the first time the 810 South Wilton site has been targeted for multifamily housing. In 2021, 810 Wilton Development Partners LLC — linked to real estate development firm The Code Solution — filed an application to replace the existing home on the lot with a five-story building featuring 17 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments above parking for 17 vehicles, Urbanize Los Angeles previously reported. The plan ultimately never came to fruition.

Elsewhere in Koreatown, another six-story apartment building could replace a smaller structure on a single lot at 412 South Catalina Street. Last year, Barkley Development’s Abolhassan Arefi filed an application with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning to turn a small apartment building at 412 South Catalina Street into a 53-unit multifamily property with a 22-car garage.

— Chris Malone Méndez