Real estate investment company Balboa Retail Partners has plans for a five-story, 521-unit mixed-use apartment development to replace a Gelson’s grocery store in Santa Monica‘s Ocean Park neighborhood.
The development would take shape at 2601 – 2645 Lincoln Boulevard, a 4.6-acre site at the southeastern corner of the intersection of Lincoln and Ocean Park Boulevards, and it would include several buildings of up to 65 feet in height holding a mix of uses. Named Lincoln Center, the existing property currently holds 56,000 square feet of retail space that includes a Gelson’s market, as well as 195 parking spaces.
“We think Lincoln Center is a great center, and like many retail shopping centers today, there’s a great opportunity to modernize the retail, rightsize the retail, and provide a better environment for the community that we’re already in,” Balboa Retail Partners Senior Vice President Alison Warner said last month in a community meeting for the project proposal. “With Lincoln Center, we also have the unique opportunity to add much-needed housing to the entire community of Santa Monica.”
Preliminary designs call for a mix of 17 percent studio apartments, 44 percent one-bedrooms, and 39 percent two-bedrooms, according to a Lincoln Center project website. Of those apartments, 53 units would be reserved for very low-income households, plans show. According to Santa Monica very low-income housing rent levels, studios would cost $700 per month, one-bedrooms $800 per month, and two-bedrooms $900 per month.
Balboa Retail Partners has plans to work with residential development company Cypress Equity Investments for the project, plans show.
While receiving some support during last month’s meeting, the project was met by multiple residents in strong opposition to the proposal.
“This project is wildly out of whack with what this neighborhood is,” one Ocean Park resident said.
If approved by the city, the proposed development would also provide 36,000 square feet of retail space including a grocery store and smaller retail and restaurant spaces along Lincoln Boulevard. Balboa Retail Partners is in discussions with several potential grocery tenants about the site, according to the project website.
Other planned features include open space and outdoor common areas for commercial tenants and customers, as well as open space for residents, such as a pool area.
The project would provide 880 automobile parking spaces in an on-site parking garage, along with space for 816 bicycles, plans show.
Designs for the proposed development are being led by Koning Eizenberg Architecture.
