Urbanize.LA
By Steven Sharp
May 20, 2019
High Street Residential, a subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company has broken ground on a multifamily residential complex near Los Angeles State Historic Park, according to a representative of the developer.
The project, which began construction last week, is located on a triangular site at 1101 N. Main Street. Plans call for the construction of a seven-story one block east of the Gold Line’s Chinatown Station, building featuring 318 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments atop a 526-car parking garage.
Designed by KFA Architecture, the podium-type building would have an E-shaped footprint with residential amenities set between three rows of apartment blocks. Floor plans show three courtyards – one of which would feature a swimming pool – in addition to a community room and a gym.
Construction is anticipated to occur over two years.
The project site – bounded by Main, Llewellyn, and Roundout Streets – abuts the vacant lot where Atlas Capital Group obtained approvals from the City of Los Angeles in March 2019 to construct a 725-unit apartment’s complex known as College Station. But in a controversial move, the Los Angeles City Council signed off on Atlas Capital’s proposed development without a 37-unit affordable set-aside that had been recommended by the City Planning Commission. Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, a group that has vocally opposed the project, has since sued to overturn its approvals and block construction.
High Street Residential’s project, which builds off of 15-year-old entitlements, has not faced the same type of opposition.
Both development sites are located within the Cornfield-Arroyo Specific Plan (CASP), which dictates land use in the area surrounding Los Angeles State Historic Park and the Los Angeles River, the projects. Though the CASP has been lauded for its forward-thinking elements – including a lack of parking requirements for new developments – it has yet to produce a single unit of new housing since its adoption in 2013, prompting City Councilmember Gil Cedillo to push for policy changes. The two housing projects within the CASP area that have moved forward – 1101 N. Main Street and College Station – were entitled under the prior zoning laws.
The 1101 N. Main Street development is the second for Trammell Crow Company in the Chinatown neighborhood, following the 355-unit La Plaza Cultura Village project now wrapping up construction just north of Olvera Street.
