Mixed-Use Project Planned for Redondo Beach Power Plant

The 49-acre site of an aging power plant in Redondo Beach will be transformed into a mixed-use development including 2,290 housing units, 510K SF of office space, a hotel and a 22.5-acre park, according to plans filed by the developer Next Century Power.

The firm, a partner in Los Angeles based SLH Investment, bought the site from AES Corp. for an undisclosed sum in 2018. The 74-year-old AES natural gas plant will shut down this year and be demolished to make way for the waterfront development, which will be known as One Redondo.

Next Century Power will reserve 458 units of One Redondo as affordable housing for low-income households. The developer also plans to build a 300-room, 150K SF hotel on the southeast corner of the property.

According to the plans, an existing boiler at the power plant will be converted into an 80K SF office building that will preserve one of the eight smoke stacks at the gas plant as an icon of the facility’s history as a utility.

The plants powerhouse on Harbor Drive will be converted into a 67K SF event space. About 2M SF of parking space is planned for the development, which is scheduled to begin construction in 2024, with completion scheduled for 2028.

Down the road at 1021 Harbor Drive, Next Century Power is planning to build a multifamily with 30 units and 7K SF of commercial space, on the site of SEA Lab, a non-profit aquarium run by the LA Conservation Corps that closed in 2019 before the pandemic began.

The AES project may get some pushback from local officials, who have held no less than six public referendums that supported preserving the AES plant site as a public park—including two ballot measures that halted previous plans to build residential developments on the power plant site.

According to statements included in a recent city council ordinance on residential zoning, the California Coastal Commission has established that there are 5.9 acres of active wetlands on the AES site that must be restored in any redevelopment.

The Audubon Society has identified the site as a natural habitat for more than 130 species of birds who winter in the area along the Pacific Flyway, the council said.

In July, Redondo Beach home prices were up 16.3% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $1.5M, according to a report from Redfin. Redondo Beach is situated between Long Beach and Santa Monica. Overall in Los Angeles, median home prices in July were $955K, up 3.2% compared with the same month last year.

While many communities across the US are reconsidering zoning laws restricting high-density housing projects, Redondo Beach has been converting many of its neighborhoods from single-family to multifamily zone for several years—despite the resistance of surrounding towns to higher-density zoning.

According to the city council of Redondo Beach, 65% of the residential neighborhoods in Redondo Beach are zoned for multifamily occupancy, while 35% remain zoned for single families.

By comparison, the majority of residential neighborhoods in neighboring towns including Torrance, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo are zoned for single-family use, including 75% SFR zoning in Torrance and 79% in Manhattan Beach.