Another big Arts District development is inching through the approval process.

Last week, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning published a sustainable communities environmental assessment (SCEA) for the proposed live/work complex at 1024 S. Mateo Street.  The project - a joint venture between Mateo Arts, LLC and DART Partners, LLC - would redevelop a 1.4-acre vehicle storage facility fronting Mateo, Bay, and Sacramento Streets with:

  • 106 live/work condominiums;
  • approximately 14,000 square feet of retail space;
  • approximately 13,000 square feet of restaurant space;
  • approximately 93,000 square feet of office space; and
  • parking for 402 vehicles.

Gensler is designing the proposed development, which would consist of an eight-story, 127-foot-tall building clad in brick, concrete, and metal.  The building would have a C-shaped form and multiple roof terraces to break up its mass, with offices and residential units split into separate wings.

Pending approvals of project entitlements - including a general plan amendment, a zone change, and density bonus incentives for on-site affordable housing - construction is scheduled to occur over approximately 24 months.  A groundbreaking date is not specified in the SCEA.

The proposed development, located near the new West Coast headquarters of Warner Music Group and the Soho Warehouse private club, could join a number of similar mixed-use projects planned for surrounding properties.

Two blocks east on Violet Street, Lowe and Related Fund Management broke ground earlier this year on a nine-story, 113,000-square-foot office building, while Onni Group is cooking up plans for a 36-story high-rise across the street.

On Bay Street to the east of Santa Fe Avenue, developers Jade Enterprises and Tishman Speyer have planned two separate mixed-use campuses.