Planned 28-Story Apartment Tower Would Be Tallest Building in This LA Neighborhood

Carmel Partners Has Assembled Site Near Future Mass Transit Stop

By Jack Witthaus CoStar News

April 11, 2022 | 4:02 P.M.

The South Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, known for its single-family houses a short drive from Beverly Hills, may become home to a towering apartment complex as a persistent housing shortage pushes developers to build taller residential projects.

San Francisco developer Carmel Partners plans a 28-story, 290-unit apartment tower and 7,500 square feet of commercial space on a site it owns at 1022-1066 S. La Cienega Blvd., according to city of Los Angeles records. Roughly 10% of the project's units may be designated as affordable.

The proposed 28-story residential tower is roughly a half-mile from the Los Angeles Metro's Purple Line stop under construction at Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards. The developer is attempting to employ the city of L.A.'s transit-oriented communities guidelines to increase the project's density and floor area while reducing parking.

The proposed development may change in height and scale depending on city approvals. Still, no building in a 1-mile radius around the project site rises above 25 stories, according to CoStar data, potentially making it the tallest development in the neighborhood.

Plans on file with the city show a project with a pool and sun deck, a spa, barbecue areas, outdoor fitness, dining areas and coworking space. The developer has been assembling the properties over the past year. The site is near Beverly Hills, Century City and L.A.'s Mid-Wilshire office submarket, making it desirable for apartment development.

Carmel Partners also is building the 1,200-unit Cumulus District mixed-use project at 3321 La Cienega Blvd. That site is roughly 2 miles south of the proposed 28-story tower and just steps away from another Metro stop. It is also working on another transit-oriented project, a 460-unit building at a site near Bundy Drive and Amherst Avenue in West Los Angeles.

The developer owns roughly 3,300 apartment units in greater Los Angeles that have an average market rent of $3,763 per unit, well above average in L.A., according to CoStar data. The company has been one of the most active buyers and sellers of apartments in greater L.A. in the past half-decade, selling more than $1.3 billion in property and buying roughly $515 million, according to CoStar data. There were roughly 13,300 apartment construction starts in greater L.A. in 2021, the second-highest annual total in the past two decades, according to CoStar data.

The Mid-Wilshire apartment market, which includes the site of the proposed 28-story complex, features an average monthly rent of $2,567, higher than the greater L.A. average of $2,134, according to CoStar data. The market's average vacancy rate is 5.1%, slightly above the greater L.A. average of 3.5%. A Carmel Partners representative did not respond to a request to comment from CoStar News.