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Major Arts District Project Faces City Test
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| The developers of the $140 million One Santa Fe project face their first city hearing this week. They hope to open the development in 2010. Rendering by Michael Maltzan Architecture. |
The $140 Million One Santa Fe Goes to the Planning Commission This Week
by Anna Scott
The developers of a large mixed-use project proposed for the Arts District face their first major step toward gaining city approval this week, when the effort goes before the L.A. Planning Commission.
Designs for the 500,000-square-foot, approximately $140 million project - which have been in the works for more than two years - have been amended significantly in the past three months to add several neighborhood-serving elements.
During recent meetings with community groups, "We heard that the ground floor didn't really add to the livability or the viability of the streetscape," said Chuck Cowley, senior vice president of developer the McGregor Company. "I've tried to understand what the concerns are, and there's been a series of changes."
One Santa Fe is expected to rise on four acres, which currently house an MTA parking lot, just north of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). The site is bounded by Santa Fe Avenue to the west; the First and Fourth Street bridges to the north and south; and Metrolink service tracks adjacent to the Los Angeles River on the east.
The project is slated to include 439 rental units above 55,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and stand approximately 65 feet and five stories tall. Cowley said he hopes to break ground by next summer and complete the development in 2010.
The latest alterations to the proposal designed by architect Michael Maltzan include additional street trees; two vertical gardens along the façade north of Third Street; 22 feet of common live-work space in place of ground-level parking between First and Third streets; and a 5,000-square-foot, ground-floor community center that would be leased to the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District organization and the Los Angeles River Artists and Business Association for $1 a year. The groups are considering using the center to house a gallery and a theater, representatives said.
Reactions
The development team, which includes Polis Builders (headed by Nick Patsaouras), first announced the project in 2005. It received a significant boost in June when Goldman Sachs' Urban Investment Group agreed to invest $28 million in the project.
SCI-Arc, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the Arts District Business Improvement District have all voted to support One Santa Fe, and many in the community have praised the developer's willingness to consider local concerns.
"They've substantially changed their designs according to what the neighborhood said, which is pretty remarkable," said former LARABA president and current board member Tim Keating. "They've really gone out of their way to listen to the criticism and respond to it."
Estela Lopez, executive director of the neighborhood BID, said she believes One Santa Fe will foster interest in the neighborhood from businesses and potential residents.
Current LARABA President John Saslow agrees. "I love the fact that they're going to have retail," he said. "I love the fact that they're offering us the community space. I think it will have a good impact."
A small but vocal group of opponents, however, is circulating a petition against One Santa Fe, and plans to lobby city officials to reject it.
"The footprint of this thing is massive," said Arts District resident Philip Cybulski, who is spearheading the opposition. "It's going to take away a bunch of space on the street, which means a lack of parking and a lot more traffic coming in and out."
Other concerns, Cybulski said, include shade impacts, a potentially disruptive construction process and the fact that because the project is slated for public land, the developers were not required to complete a full Environmental Impact Report.
Regarding the EIR, a McGregor Co. spokeswoman said last week that the company instead completed and filed a Mitigated Negative Declaration with the city, which declared the project would not have significant environmental impacts.
If the Planning Commission approves the project, a series of hearings would follow for general plan amendments and zoning changes. The proposal would then go before the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, and finally the full City Council.
Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.
page 11, 10/8/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Designs for the 500,000-square-foot, approximately $140 million project - which have been in the works for more than two years - have been amended significantly in the past three months to add several neighborhood-serving elements.
During recent meetings with community groups, "We heard that the ground floor didn't really add to the livability or the viability of the streetscape," said Chuck Cowley, senior vice president of developer the McGregor Company. "I've tried to understand what the concerns are, and there's been a series of changes."
One Santa Fe is expected to rise on four acres, which currently house an MTA parking lot, just north of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). The site is bounded by Santa Fe Avenue to the west; the First and Fourth Street bridges to the north and south; and Metrolink service tracks adjacent to the Los Angeles River on the east.
The project is slated to include 439 rental units above 55,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and stand approximately 65 feet and five stories tall. Cowley said he hopes to break ground by next summer and complete the development in 2010.
The latest alterations to the proposal designed by architect Michael Maltzan include additional street trees; two vertical gardens along the façade north of Third Street; 22 feet of common live-work space in place of ground-level parking between First and Third streets; and a 5,000-square-foot, ground-floor community center that would be leased to the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District organization and the Los Angeles River Artists and Business Association for $1 a year. The groups are considering using the center to house a gallery and a theater, representatives said.
The development team, which includes Polis Builders (headed by Nick Patsaouras), first announced the project in 2005. It received a significant boost in June when Goldman Sachs' Urban Investment Group agreed to invest $28 million in the project.
SCI-Arc, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the Arts District Business Improvement District have all voted to support One Santa Fe, and many in the community have praised the developer's willingness to consider local concerns.
"They've substantially changed their designs according to what the neighborhood said, which is pretty remarkable," said former LARABA president and current board member Tim Keating. "They've really gone out of their way to listen to the criticism and respond to it."
Estela Lopez, executive director of the neighborhood BID, said she believes One Santa Fe will foster interest in the neighborhood from businesses and potential residents.
Current LARABA President John Saslow agrees. "I love the fact that they're going to have retail," he said. "I love the fact that they're offering us the community space. I think it will have a good impact."
A small but vocal group of opponents, however, is circulating a petition against One Santa Fe, and plans to lobby city officials to reject it.
"The footprint of this thing is massive," said Arts District resident Philip Cybulski, who is spearheading the opposition. "It's going to take away a bunch of space on the street, which means a lack of parking and a lot more traffic coming in and out."
Other concerns, Cybulski said, include shade impacts, a potentially disruptive construction process and the fact that because the project is slated for public land, the developers were not required to complete a full Environmental Impact Report.
Regarding the EIR, a McGregor Co. spokeswoman said last week that the company instead completed and filed a Mitigated Negative Declaration with the city, which declared the project would not have significant environmental impacts.
If the Planning Commission approves the project, a series of hearings would follow for general plan amendments and zoning changes. The proposal would then go before the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, and finally the full City Council.
Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.
page 11, 10/8/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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