A developer is looking to replace a shuttered Walgreens in Reseda with nearly 300 apartments.
Ariel Namvar of Park Sherman LLC has filed an application with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning to demolish the decommissioned pharmacy building and construct a seven-story building with 290 apartments at 18340 Sherman Way, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The property, which boasts an accompanying surface parking lot, has been vacant since 2023.
Namvar is seeking entitlements including density bonus incentives to erect a taller structure than normally allowed by zoning laws. The developer will designate 44 units for very low-income and moderate-income households in exchange. Under the latest California Department of Housing and Community Development guidelines released recently, very low-income for one person is a maximum annual income of $58,300, while moderate-income is capped at $90,800.
Reseda’s Sherman Way corridor is in the midst of a commercial rebirth with projects like Azure Development’s plan to turn the long-vacant Reseda Theatre across the street from the abandoned Walgreens site into a food hall, according to Urbanize.
Namvar’s plans aren’t the only multifamily units in the works in the San Fernando Valley enclave. Last year, JZA Architecture submitted plans to the Department of City Planning on behalf of developer Efi Meirson to demolish four rent-controlled cottages at 7040-46 Baird Avenue and erect a six-story building with 95 units. Meirson is also seeking density bonuses in exchange for affordable units.
Developers in Los Angeles are increasingly opting to build affordable housing and taking advantage of city and state incentives to do so, such as Executive Directive 1, which expedites approvals for 100 percent affordable developments. Despite seemingly glacial housing production, L.A. actually ranked among the top 10 cities nationwide building affordable housing in the post-pandemic years, according to RentCafe data. More than 9,400 income-restricted apartments were completed in the city between 2020 and 2024, representing 20.5 percent of all apartment construction in the L.A. metro area in those years. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of affordable units completed marked a 79.5 percent increase over the previous period between 2015 and 2019. — Chris Malone Méndez
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