Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Another Stalled South Park Tower Comes Back to Life


Rumors began circulating late last year, but a new case filing from the Department of City Planning makes it official: phase two of Apex has been resurrected.

Documents on file with the City of Los Angeles indicate that the revived development would feature a 28-story residential tower at the southwest corner of 9th and Flower Streets.  Earlier plans for the building had called for approximately 280 dwelling units and ground-floor retail space.  An adjacent triangular site at the southeast corner of 9th and Figueroa Streets would give way for a two-story standalone retail structure.

The existing Apex tower was originally developed as part of a three-phase condominium complex known as Concerto.  The project, which was built by Sonny Astani, experienced a litany of setbacks due to the global financial crisis of the late 2000s.  Following the bankruptcy of his lender, Astani was forced to sell the nearly-finished building in 2011.  Apex and its adjacent development site eventually came into the possession of ST Residential, which opened the tower as luxury apartments in 2012.

An exact timeline and design for the project is currently unclear.  When initially proposed one decade ago, plans for the Concerto complex called for a twin-tower design from architecture firm HansonLA.

The original design for Concerto (Image: Astani Enterprises)

4 comments:

  1. Absolutely Wonderful! Great views from this Vantage!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed. Even better, I count four surface parking lots in the first picture that no longer exist.

      Delete
  2. Are there any plans for the parking lot at the southwest corner of 9th and Figueroa -- the one just north of the Figueroa hotel and across the street from the Pantry?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There were conceptual renderings for a tower (or towers) at the SW 9th/Fig corner years ago, but I don't think there's ever been a concrete proposal. Just a matter of time though, since that and the 8th/Fig lot are the only two big development site left on the street.

      Delete