Little Tokyo Service Center and its partners were notified late yesterday (June 24) by the City of Los Angeles that its proposal for the city-owned Alameda and First parcel (a.k.a. the Mangrove site) will be recommended by the Office of the Chief Legislative Analyst for City Council approval. Little Tokyo Service Center and its partners in this project -- Kaji & Associates and Urban Partners -- have proposed a mixed-use development for this 5 acre site adjacent to the Little Tokyo/Arts District Gold Line station.
The proposed development, named Nikkei Center, consists of nearly 400 units of mixed-income rental housing, 180,000 square feet of office space, 80,000 square feet of retail space and approximately 1300 parking spaces. The office space is tentatively planned as the headquarters for L.A. Care Health Plan, a health maintenance organizaton created to provide public health benefits to under-served communities.
The development team unites three diverse and experienced members of the downtown Los Angeles real estate community. Little Tokyo Service Center started in 1979 as a neighborhood-based social service agency, and in the past 20 years has developed affordable housing and community facilities in Little Tokyo and surrounding communities. Kaji & Associates has been involved in Little Tokyo for several decades. The firm provides business consultancy services in areas ranging from real estate, economic development, international trade and emerging technologies. Urban Partners is a real estate planning, investment, development and management firm. Their projects include transit-oriented developments such as the Del Mar, Wilshire Vermont and Washington National Stations.
The lead architect for the project is world-renowned The Jerde Partnership. Jerde brings a vast amount of experience designing exciting destinations such as Universal CityWalk, San Diego's Horton Plaza, Las Vegas' Bellagio and Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. Rounding out the design team are Togawa Smith Martin Residential and Ted Tokio Tanaka Architects.
The team expects City Council approval shortly and will work with City agencies and community groups to further refine development plans. Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2009 with completion by the end of 2011.
Congratulations to Little Tokyo Service Center, Kaji & Associates and Urban Partners!
[ For more information, please contact Ron Fong (rfong @ LTSC.org) at Little Tokyo Service Center. ]
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10 comments
Wow, this is great news!!!
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 3:13 PM
renews one's faith in city govt.... surely the best team was selected on its merits, time to celebrate and then focus on the next hurdles,
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 3:36 PM
It does appear that the best project was selected. I hope there are no delays.
Maybe when it is almost done, the proposed Metro connector line will already be under construction.
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 4:18 PM
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
When i first read the email i was literally jumping up and down in my room.
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 5:49 PM
so the home team finally wins one, eh?
congrats to all involved :)
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 7:14 PM
Wow, this is exciting news. Really shows you what can happen when the community pulls together.
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 7:30 PM
wow! that's great!
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 8:58 PM
I agree Grant. This is way better than the Lakers winning the championship. --T.O.
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 9:44 PM
amazing how the president of LTCC, who is also involved in the winning team was able to give a fair vote in all of this... I'm not saying that its not good news that they won, but the actions they took to win was not fair to the other competitors.
lets see how much of a delay this project is going to get.
Posted on June 30, 2008 at 2:39 PM
A little off topic, but not to much. In two weeks, starting on July 11th and running till July 17th The ImaginAsian Center will be showing an extraordinary documentary called Passing Poston. It is about the thousands of Japanese Americans who were put into detainee camps by the United States Government during WWII.
It is a must see!!!
For additional information check out the website at, www.passingposton.com
Posted on June 30, 2008 at 2:44 PM
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