Relevant Group OK 331-unit apartment building in Downtown Los Angeles

Relevant Group has gotten a key approval to build the first of two modular apartment towers planned for Downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has approved plans by the Hollywood-based developer to construct a 331-unit apartment building at 121 W. 3rd St., according to Urbanize L.A.

The 15-story building would replace a parking lot at 3rd and Spring streets. The U-shaped building would wrap around a landscaped courtyard and be topped by a gym and swimming pool nearly 200 feet above the sidewalk.

Its 331 apartments would consist of one- and two-bedroom prefabricated units built off-site, then assembled at the property. Units would range between 422 and 870 square feet.

The rust-colored apartments would rise above 6,350 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants, with 37 spaces for parking underground.

Relevant would set aside 37 units as affordable for residents at the very-low income level – or $41,400 a year for a single earner – in exchange for being allowed to increase the project size and reduce required parking.

The 220,160-square-foot project designed by Gensler would open a block south of a new Historic Broadway Metro stop at 2nd and Spring streets, part of a Regional Connector slated to open this year.

The apartment building is Relevant Group’s first new project since proposing an 87-unit affordable housing complex in South L.A. in late 2019.

While the firm has focused its development work on hotels along Selma and Wilcox avenues in Hollywood, it also has several projects underway Downtown. It filed plans for a 19-story modular building with 329 apartments on a slim mid-block property at 845 S. Olive St., also designed by Gensler.

Relevant Group also plans to overhaul the 104-year-old Morrison Hotel in South Park and build a 150-unit affordable complex in Skid Row to offset the loss of single-room occupancy units.

Downtown Los Angeles was the busiest in the nation for new apartments in 2021, according to a recent report, with 10,000 new units since 2017.

[Urbanize L.A.] – Dana Bartholomew