TADG Pitches Apartments Above a Car Showroom in Encino

In what may be the first development of its kind in Los Angeles, TADG Real Estate Group has proposed building an apartment tower above a car dealership in Encino.

Jason Majzoub of Studio City-based TADG has filed plans to build a 12-story highrise with 130 apartments above a Mercedes-Benz showroom at 16747 West Ventura Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

It would replace a used car lot at Ventura and La Maida Avenue, across from Los Encinos State Historic Park.

TADG Real Estate, led by Nasser Watar, is tied to Trophy Automotive Dealer Group, owner of Trophy Mercedes-Benz of Encino, a three-story car dealer next door, according to state business records.

Plans call for a 130-foot tower with 130 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments above a more than 16,000-square-foot Mercedes-Benz showroom.

The developer aims to use density bonus incentives to allow for a larger building than allowed by local zoning rules in exchange for 26 affordable apartments.

The white and gray building, designed by Orange-based AO, would include a C-shaped structure atop a four-story podium topped by a small courtyard deck and swimming pool, according to renderings. The units would include small balconies in front of floor-to-ceiling doors and windows.

Parking for the Mercedes showroom would be underground, while residents would park in a garage on the first four floors, with the exception of the ground-floor showroom.

The proposed project is the latest and largest in a handful of new mixed-use projects reshaping Ventura Boulevard through Encino, including a smaller residential-retail complex proposed at 16610 West Ventura Boulevard and an eldercare facility now rising at 16161 West Ventura Boulevard, according to Urbanize.

In 2019, Trophy Automotive bought a 72,000-square-foot Kia dealership in Carson for $29 million.

At the time, Japan-based Nissan Motor was reviewing Trophy because Watar, its CEO, was a business partner of Sheikh Khaled Al Juffali, who Japanese prosecutors allege played a part in Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s scheme to shift personal debts over to Nissan. Trophy said it had no connection to the scandal.

— Dana Bartholomew