468-Unit Lincoln Heights Mixed-Use Project Moves Forward

The Los Angeles planning department has officially advanced Avenue 34, a 468-unit mixed-use project slated for Lincoln Heights and approved via a 5-1 vote by planning commissioners in the fall, according to a planning director determination letter scanned this week. Proposed by Los Angeles-based developer The Pinyon Group, the Avenue 34 project has faced pushback in the last year from certain neighborhood residents expressing concern over factors like the development’s size.

Deemed a Tier-3 project by planners under the city’s transit-oriented communities program, the 514,758-square-foot Lincoln Heights project will rise to a high of five stories following the demolition of the project site’s several existing commercial structures, which include a 86,712-square-foot warehouse building. Plans call for a two-phased development with three buildings over two levels of subterranean parking.

As the project has moved through the planning process, some neighborhood residents have acted in opposition to the project and its size. Following initial approvals for increased density over the summer, neighbors filed an appeal, requiring an October planning commission vote that once again granted Avenue 34 approvals.

Of Avenue 34’s 468 units, 222 will be studios, 152 will be one-bedrooms, 94 will be two-bedrooms. As a Tier-3 TOC project, Avenue 34 will reserve 66 units, or 14% of the total, for very low-income households.

The project will also have 16,395 square feet of commercial space, 311 underground automobile parking spaces, and 299 bicycle parking spaces, in addition to almost 50,000 square feet of open space and several amenities. Plans call for, among other features, a 29,395-square-foot courtyard with a pool, spa, and lounge areas.

Others with The Pinyon Group on the Avenue 34 team are Culver City-based architecture firm KFA Architecture and AHBE Landscape Architects, along with DLA Piper real estate attorney Andrew Brady, listed as the project representative.

R Cap Avenue 34 LLC, the entity listed alongside The Pinyon Group principal Jay Stark as project applicant, acquired the project’s four properties last year for $30.75 million, according to county assessor records recorded in June. That LLC is registered to the Ohio headquarters of RMS Investment Group, a family office and real estate company.