AMLI Plans Nearly 1,000 New Apartments in Pasadena

AMLI Residential is looking to add nearly 1,000 new apartments to one of its existing multifamily complexes in Pasadena.

The Pasadena Design Commission is reviewing plans from AMLI Residential to turn the former headquarters campus of engineering firm Parsons into housing, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The project would be an expansion of AMLI’s AMLI Old Pasadena apartments at 100 West Walnut Street.

The original AMLI Old Pasadena apartments rose on the eastern portion of the Parsons campus, providing 400 apartments and 17,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space to the site. AMLI’s new plans call for demolishing the 12-story former Parsons building complex to make way for five residential buildings rising four to seven stories. The buildings would contain 975 residential units above a subterranean parking garage with space for 1,467 vehicles. A new paseo would be built to divide the 22-acre property into northern and southern portions. Two new plazas and 25,000 square feet of resident amenities are also part of the plans for the 1.1-million-square-foot development.

Because of the proposed project’s mammoth size, AMLI is seeking density bonus incentives to erect larger buildings than usually allowed by zoning regulations. The developer would provide affordable housing in exchange, designating 85 units for rent by moderate-income households, 43 for low-income and 43 for very low-income residents.

As Pasadena officials consider the proposal, city leaders are also considering the redevelopment of land in the so-called 710 “Stub,” which was cleared decades ago for a freeway extension that never came to fruition, with housing. AMLI’s Old Pasadena complex is roughly half a mile away from the site.

AMLI’s proposal comes after the Chicago-based firm tightened its belt in the Los Angeles area. Last year, it sold The Kitt at Warner Center, a 522-unit complex it developed at 21200 Kittridge Street nearly two decades ago, for $180 million, The Real Deal reported at the time. The transaction ended up being the priciest multifamily sale in Woodland Hills last year, TRD reported.

— Chris Malone Méndez