Howard Hughes Center Expansion Back on Track

Image credit: Curbed LA

After years of delays, long awaited plans to add hundreds of residential units to Westchester's Howard Hughes Center are finally moving forward.  Earlier this year, ground was broken on a new apartment complex, located on a formerly vacant lot at 6040 Center Drive.  Rising six stories, the building will contain 218 apartment dwellings above two levels of underground parking.  Permit filings from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety indicate that a second six-story residential complex is also planned across the street at 5900 Center Drive.  That building would be slightly larger in scale, consisting of 327 apartments in addition to underground parking accommodations.  Both residential structures would lie within walking distance of the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, a two-level outdoor mall anchored by a luxury theater outpost.

6040 W. Center Drive

Huge Residential Development Starts Work in Playa Vista

Traveling through the so-called "Lower Westside," you'll notice that construction activity is in full swing throughout the Playa Vista campus.  Lincoln Property Group's Runway has taken off, Tishman Speyer plans to break ground on 200,000 square feet of office space next month, and now work has commenced on a massive residential development at the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Centinela Avenue.  Set to rise four stories, the building at 12481 West Fielding Circle would contain 703 apartment units above two levels of underground parking.  Future neighbors will inevitably be elderly and Semitic, as the Los Angeles Jewish Home intends to open the Fountainview at Gonda Westside just down the street in 2016.  On the opposite side of Jefferson Boulevard, a 196-unit luxury apartment development from the Texas-based Dinerstein Cos. is currently wrapping up construction.  Quite a bit of density, especially for a part of Los Angeles that has fought these kinds of developments for decades.  However, the recent influx of tech and creative industry jobs into Silicon Beach has created strong demand for additional housing units.

• Case Information Summary Sheet (LA City Planning)