Forest City Sets Downtown LA Lofts

LOS ANGELES-A unit of Cleveland-based urban development giant Forest City Enterprises has set a January target date to begin construction of a $50-million, 230-unit loft apartment complex downtown.

Forest City Residential West’s seven-story project will rise at 11th and Flower streets, a block east of Staples Center. The 200,000-sf complex received the city council’s approval a few weeks ago.

A similarly sized project proposed for another downtown site was dealt a serious setback last week, when the city council told developer J.H. Palmer Associates that at least 15% of the units in Palmer’s project would have to be reserved for low-income tenants. J.H. Palmer wants to build only market-rate apartments, which would likely fetch more than $2,500 a month, instead of renting some of the units for only a few hundred dollars each month to low-income tenants.