Developer SoLa Impact has plans for a 70-unit mixed-use apartment project near where the Baldwin Village neighborhood meets the Crenshaw district, according to a planning case opened by the city of Los Angeles this week.
Plans call for a five-story, 33,467-square-foot development to rise at the site of a vacant lot at 4006 – 4014 W Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The developer is requesting Tier-2 project incentives under the city’s transit-oriented communities program, including an 11-foot height increase to 56 feet, a reduction in required parking spaces to 0.5 per bedroom, and an up to 60-percent, or 29-unit, density bonus, plans show.
Named 4008 MLK, the project would also offer 437 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
Designs for the proposed development are being led by project architect The Architects Collective and landscape architect Harmony Gardens.
“The project’s storefront design elements break up the frontage to draw the pedestrian eye, and large floor-to-ceiling windows invite pedestrian engagement and active use,” the project team writes in application materials. “The project’s strong, unified front façade and dynamic coloration provides a contemporary & lively aesthetic to the neighborhood,” it goes on later.
All but two of 4008 MLK’s apartments would be 392-square-foot one-bedrooms, with the remaining two units slated to be 305-square-foot studio apartments, plans show. Per Tier-2 TOC requirements, SoLa Impact would set aside seven units for extremely low-income households.
The South Los Angeles developer is an active investor in projects in Opportunity Zones, which are census tracts designated under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to offer tax breaks to certain qualifying long-term investors. Like other projects being led by SoLa Impact in South Los Angeles, 4008 MLK would rise in an Opportunity Zone census tract.
Along with apartments and commercial space, plans for 4008 MLK call for 36 parking spaces in an enclosed garage, 11 electric vehicle charging stations, 60 bicycle spaces, and about 5,600 square feet of common open space, including a common area courtyard and a roof deck.
SoLa Impact acquired the roughly 17,500-square-foot project site earlier this year through an affiliate for about $2.1 million, according to county property records.
