Lowe Enterprises is taking on all the major asset classes for its latest project. The transit-oriented development Ivy Station includes 200 apartment units, a 148-room boutique hotel, 55,000 square feet ground floor retail, 200,000 square feet of office building and 1,500 below grade parking spaces. Lowe is partnering with AECOM and Rockwood Capital to fund the $350 million project.

“Our vision is really about how we create great places around transit and improving locations within our city, and densifying the vision of L.A. It is also about creating an experience for people that are using transit and choosing alternative forms of transportation in our city. It is really about the experience of place and mix of uses,” Tom Wulf, SVP at Lowe Enterprises, tells GlobeSt.com. “There is a true demand for all of these product types. I think that it is about the experience of the property, and when we looked at it in the beginning, our vision was creating that experience with a vibrant atmosphere where people could live, work, stay and play. To create that experience, you need to have an all-day atmosphere that creates activity.”

Ivy Station has been in the works for five years. Lowe originally purchased the project from the Culver City redevelopment agency in 2012, just before the State abolished redevelopment agencies. Culver City wanted the project to have the four asset classes, knowing there would eventually be a metro line at the site, and presented the opportunity to six developers. Once Lowe won the project, it took three years to go through the entitlement process. “Entitlements took three years. The complexity that we have with sites like this that are on transit is the multitude of jurisdictional issues,” says Wulf. “We had to get entitlements from Culver City and the City of Los Angeles, and we have a portion that is controlled by Metro, so we have to get approvals from them as well. Overall, we had strong support from the agencies and the community as well.”