Koreatown Development Wave Spreading South

A half-block of modest apartment buildings and strip malls on Koreatown's southern fringe may have a date with the grim reaper.  According to plans submitted to the city in late September, a 1.6-acre site at 3076 W. Olympic Boulevard is slated for demolition, to be replaced by a low-rise residential-retail complex.  The mixed-use development, which would rise between Kingsley Drive and Ardmore Avenue, calls for a four-story structure featuring 226 residential units, ground-floor commercial space, and a two-level subterranean parking garage.

The project, still in the early stages of the city's cumbersome approval process, will require at least one zoning variance to be built in its proposed form.  3076 Olympic could be considered a southern expansion of Koreatown's recent development wave, which has up until now consisted of low-rise apartment complexes near Wilshire Boulevard.

7 Story Mixed-Use Development Coming to Olympic and Grand

Back in May, rumors pointed to the development of a high rise hotel on the surface parking lot at the southeastern corner of Olympic Blvd and Grand Avenue.  Unfortunately for tall building enthusiasts and Downtown LA boosters, a new Hilton will not be coming to the intersection.  Instead, this is what we have in the works:

8/9/2013

1000 S GRAND AVE 90015

PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF A 7-STORY MIXED-USE PROJECT CONSISTING OF APPROXIMATELY 274 DWELLING UNITS AND 12,000 SQ. FT. OF RETAIL SPACE

As noted by Brigham Yen, this lot is entitled for a building as tall as 33 stories.  Thus, I wonder if this project meets the standards of "highest and best use," for the property.  The proposal at Olympic/Grand comes amidst the recent (and well documented) trend of low rise developments taking up parcels of land with much more significant entitlements .

Then again, a low rise apartment building is still preferable to this erstwhile proposal for the Olympic/Grand corner lot.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the City House and the Olympic:

What century are these two pieces of fugly supposed to be from?  Images from Robertson Partners.

I owe the real estate bust a measure of gratitude for stomping that project out.  Not that it really had legs to begin with.