Proposed 114-Unit Koreatown Project Moves Forward

The Los Angeles planning department has given approvals to plans for a six-story, 114-unit multifamily project at 815 – 831 S. Kingsley Dr. in the Koreatown neighborhood, according to a determination letter filed by the city last week. The applicant and owner behind the project is St. Mary’s Medical Plaza LLC, which state filings show is registered to the address of prolific Koreatown developer Jamison Properties.

Named Kingsley Apartments, the project will rise to a maximum height of about 78 feet on currently undeveloped land. The four-lot, 26,617-square-foot project site previously held two single-family dwellings, an ADU, a duplex, and childcare facility, plans show.

In their place will go a residential project with about 108,000 square feet of floor area containing one studio, 61 one-bedrooms, and 52 two-bedrooms. The project will provide 159 automobile parking spaces within a ground-floor level and two-level subterranean garage, as well as 118 bicycle spaces.

Planning approvals awarded this month include Tier-3 project incentives under the city’s transit-oriented communities program, including a 70-percent density increase in lieu of a base density of 67 units.

The architect for the project is shown as Santa Monica-based DFH Architects, with Palos Verdes Estates-based Gaudet Design Group shown as the landscape architect.

Along with the residences, Kingsley Apartments will also include roughly 10,500 square feet of usable open space. Plans call for an approximately 1,000-square-foot fitness center, 633-square-foot club room, pool, and rooftop lounge and seating area.

St. Mary’s Medical Plaza LLC recently acquired the project site for about $9.7 million, according to a transaction recorded with Los Angeles County in 2019.

Through Jamison Properties, its real estate development arm, the Jamison organization has a portfolio consisting of a number of large properties in and around the Koreatown neighborhood, such as 150-unit 555 Harvard and a 157-unit development at 8th Street and Serrano Avenue.