Shiny New Renderings Released for Figueroa Central

Figueroa Central (All images: Oceanwide Holdings Group)

New renderings have emerged for Figueroa Central, the skyline-altering mixed-use complex which recently broke ground across the street from Staples Center.

The $1 billion development from Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings Group will create three high-rise towers, offering 504 luxury condominiums and a five-star hotel.  Long envisioned as the retail complement to the restaurants and entertainment venues of LA Live, Figueroa Central will contain approximately 200,000 square feet of commercial space within a two-level open-air galleria.

Designs for the project by architecture firm RTKL call for some of the tallest residential buildings in Los Angeles.  The 49-story North Tower, rising 677 feet above street level, will include a 183-key hotel and 164 condominiums.  As first reported by DTLA Rising, the five-star inn will feature the first American outpost of the opulent Cavalli Club, in addition to celebrity-chef restaurants and a luxurious spa.

Figueroa Central's twin South Towers will each rise 40 stories, peaking 530 feet above ground.  Plans call for 170 condominiums in each of the buildings, perched above an elevated private park with greenery and playground space for residents.  The towers' seven-story podium would feature nearly 1,000 parking spaces, obscured from view by a 32,000-square-foot LED ribbon which is being called the largest on the West Coast.  The project would also include an additional 480 parking stalls on subterranean levels.

Oceanwide Holdings currently anticipates sales of the condominium units to commence in 2017, with the full project expected to open in 2018.

Demolition Imminent at Fig Central Site

In October, Oceanwide Real Estate Group finally revealed their new three-tower plan for the long-awaited Fig Central mega-development.  Just two months later, the Bejing-based developer is already moving ahead with an important first step in the construction process.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety issued demolition permits for the existing structures at 1101 S. Flower Street.  The 4.6-acre property, purchased by Oceanwide in late 2013, is currently developed with a pair of low-rise mechanical buildings and an underground bank vault.  Construction of the new tower complex will necessitate the removal of all existing structures.

As of Monday, the process had already kicked off with the arrival of heavy equipment along the Flower Street side of the project site.  This afternoon, a skeleton crew was hastily assembling a chain-link fence which now encircles the property.  One worker stated that demolition was scheduled to begin soon.

First Look at the Redesigned Figueroa Central

Earlier this month, puzzling news emerged from Downtown Los Angeles.  Figueroa Central, the long awaited mixed-use companion to LA Live, was simultaneously upsized and downsized.  Revised plans from Oceanwide Real Estate Group added a third tower to the development, but also featured less than half of the 1,200 residential units permitted under the original project.  Now, a document from the DLANC's Planning and Land Use Committee is here to answer all of your burning questions.

Despite a significant reduction to Figueroa Central's proposed residential density, new designs from RTKL actually call for taller buildings than in the original proposal.  The largest of the three buildings - referred to as the North Tower - would rise 49 stories from the intersection of 11th and Flower Streets.  The 677-foot tall structure would contain 164 residential units, a 183-room hotel, and various ancillary uses.

Moving south through the project site, designs call for twin 40-story buildings, each with an architectural apex 530 feet above street level.  The Middle and South Towers would comprise the bulk of Figueroa Central's residential component, each containing 170 dwellings.  Units would average 1,620 square feet in size, ranging from 1,000 square foot one-bedroom units to 6,000 square foot penthouse units.

Oceanwide Group Finally Getting Active on Fig Central

Image credit: RTKL

Nine months after purchasing the comatose Fig Central development for $200 million, Oceanwide Real Estate Group is finally taking the plunge in South Park.  Last week, the Beijing-based developer issued $320 million in bonds that will reportedly be used to finance the construction of the mixed-use complex.  Simultaneously, the developer has applied for the first in a series of LADBS approvals that will allow the long-delayed project to move forward.

The recent LADBS filing describes Fig Central as a two-building development, offering a mixture of apartments and hotel rooms above ground-level commercial space and a health club.  Towers will ascend to heights of 53 and 38 stories, seated atop a an eight-floor podium structure.  Seven stories of the podium will be devoted to a vehicular garage, supplementing three underground parking levels.

More information can be garnered via a series of renderings, drawn up years ago by architectural firm RTKL.  Fig Central, originally envisioned as the retail component of the LA Live complex, greets its namesake street with storefronts and a mid-block public plaza.  From there, a ground-level paseo cuts straight through to the eastern side of the property, helping to mitigate the inherent walkability issues that come with such a large development site.

The glass-clad towers would directly abut the Flower Street side of the project, creating a formidable street wall along the path of the Blue and Expo Lines.  Upper levels of the mid-rise podium would feature outdoor dining space and a residential amenity deck.  Additionally, a large LED ribbon would wrap the western perimeter of the property, bombarding commercialism upon all passersby between 11th and 12th Streets.

Fig Central joins more than a dozen new and revived high-rise projects that have sprung up throughout Downtown within the past two years.  North of LA Live, the Shanghai-based Greenland Group is currently building hotel and condominium towers as part of their Metropolis development.   On parking lots surrounding the Fig Central site, Mack Urban and other local investors are scheduled to break ground on multiple high-rise buildings before the end of this year.