Los Angeles City Planning Commission President Samantha Millman and a rendering of the Flower Market project (credit: Brooks + Scarpa and Twitter)
A proposed 323-unit apartment building in Downtown Los Angeles at that the Southern California Flower Market passed a key hurdle this week.
The City Planning Commission voted in favor of the plan by the market’s owners, according to Urbanize. The vote sends the project to the City Council for final approval.
Under the proposal, a 15-story mixed-use tower with 323 residential units would be constructed after an existing 185,000-square-foot building is razed. The residential building at 7th Street and Maple Avenue would include 32 units set aside for moderate-income households.
The new tower would also include 168,633 square feet of office and wholesale market space, with a portion for retail, according to Urbanize.
Brooks + Scarpa’s design for the mixed-use building includes terraced decks and ground-level pedestrian walkways, according to Urbanize. It plans to use a mix of materials for the facade, including glass, metal, and possibly concrete.
A 206,500-square-foot building on the 3.8-acre property at 755 Wall Street would remain. The project is planned in phases to allow the active market to operate.
The market is owned by a group of families. Many are related to the vendors who founded the market in 1909, according to Curbed. They proposed the redevelopment in 2016, although the project has changed significantly since then. At the time, a representative for the owners said rising rents and aging facilities prompted a redevelopment.
The owners of the neighboring Los Angeles Flower Market filed one appeal to stop the project, and the labor union coalition, CREEDLA, filed another. Both were denied. [Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch