A massive real estate development that would include more than 1,500 residences, dramatically transform three city blocks and alter the downtown Los Angeles skyline was approved Tuesday by the City Council.
The planned Fourth & Central complex would cost $2 billion to build and include a mix of residential, office, restaurant and shop spaces in multiple distinct buildings over 7.6 acres.
The location is now a collection of cold storage facilities, parking lots and warehouses in Skid Row near its boundary with the Arts District.
The project was first unveiled in 2021 and has undergone a lengthy review process that included environmental impact studies and objections from people and organizations in nearby Little Tokyo concerned about its scale and potential to gentrify the historic neighborhood. The owner of the site, Los Angeles Cold Storage, agreed to reduce the height of its tallest planned tower from 44 stories to 30.
Fourth & Central’s approved plan calls for 10 buildings, including a 30-story residential skyscraper . In total, the proposal calls for 572 condominiums and 949 apartments, with at least 262 units set aside as affordable housing. Earlier plans included a hotel, which has been scrapped.
If feasible, the developers agreed to reuse a six-story brick masonry building on 4th Street, dating to the early 1900s, that is no longer used to chill goods. L.A.’s early cold storage facilities were located on Central and Santa Fe avenues near the Santa Fe rail line, food brokers, distributors and food processing plants, the Los Angeles Conservancy said.
Los Angeles Cold Storage expanded several times throughout the twentieth century, becoming the city’s most prominent cold storage company, according to the Conservancy.
“We have literally spent years working on our plan to transform this industrial property into a mixed-use community. To hear our city’s decision-makers agree with our vision for what Downtown Los Angeles can and should be makes today’s major milestone all the more rewarding,” said Larry Rauch, president of Los Angeles Cold Storage, in a statement. “We are big believers in the potential of our city, and that’s why we have chosen to make this substantive investment in its future.”
The developers will next prepare construction drawings and take other steps in anticipation of breaking ground in about two years.
Fourth & Central is intended to feel like a small, walkable community with new buildings that acknowledge the industrial history of the area , architect Alan Pullman said when the project was announced. His Los Angeles firm, Studio One Eleven, is overseeing the master plan and designing buildings, but it has also brought in another architect to make the complex’s look more diverse.
“We want to create a neighborhood that feels like an organic part of the city that grew up over time,” he said, and avoid the design monotony often found in mega-developments.
Two marquee buildings, including the high-rise, were designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, best known as the lead designer of the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington.
There will be a public courtyard and pedestrian pathways. It will have outlets such as banks and dry cleaners meant to serve the locals along with restaurants, bars and fashion or arts-oriented stores .
The affordable units will serve tenants with very low and extremely low incomes, and Downtown Women’s Center has agreed to serve the project’s residents.
The Women’s Center will provide tenant identification and selection. Its on-site care will include, as needed, case management, nursing, occupational therapy, substance abuse support, workforce development, and round-the-clock resident coordinators .
“We need more housing now, and the Fourth & Central project is the single largest opportunity to deliver privately funded deeply affordable homes with wrap-around supportive services to Skid Row and downtown Los Angeles,” said Jed Leano of the Inner City Law Center.
Formal support for the project came from other sources, including the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, the Little Tokyo Business Association, the Union Rescue Mission, MoveLA, the DTLA Residents Association and Union Station Homeless Services.
“Downtown Los Angeles is where we must grow. We are the densest, most transit-rich part of the city, and that makes us key to solving our housing crisis,” said Nella McOsker, president of Central City Association, a business advocacy group. “Los Angeles needs more projects like Fourth & Central that expand affordable housing, create jobs, and enable a more sustainable city. Downtown is precisely the place to do it.”