City Market of L.A. Gets Approval for $1B Urban-Retail Village

The City Council has approved a revised plan from The City Market of Los Angeles to redevelop a site that once housed a wholesale produce market in the city’s Fashion District.

The plans call for buildings up to 38 stories tall, with 945 residential units, a 210-room hotel and a 300K SF educational or corporate campus. The buildings will be interspersed with 10 acres of courtyards and paseos.

The project also will have almost 500K SF of commercial space including restaurants, bars, event space, space for wholesale uses and a 744-seat cinema, according to a report in Urbanize L.A.

The mixed-use urban-retail village will rise on the site of a century-old wholesale produce market that closed in 2009, a parcel bounded by 9th, 11th, San Pedro and San Julio Streets.

The City Market development, which was first proposed a decade ago, received approvals from the city for a zone change in 2018, but in 2020 became mired in a scandal involving a former City Council member who has been sentenced to prison for racketeering and tax evasion charges tied to Downtown developments.

In 2020, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti vetoed a development agreement for the project, objected to amendments made by Jose Huizar to redirect payments intended for citywide funds to the Council District 14 public benefit trust fund, the report said.

In place of a $3.9M payment into the Council District 14 affordable housing trust fund, the revised agreement stipulates that the $1B City Market project will reserve 10% of its apartments for affordable housing units that can be rented at below-market rates.

The affordable units will include 47 reserved for households earning between 50% and 80% of the area’s median income and 47 moderate-income units, reserved for households earning between 80% and 120% of the area’s median income level.

The revised agreement retains funding for several initiatives in District 14, including $1.9M for homeless health services; $1.9M for street improvements; $1.9M for public transportation; and a $1M contribution to the Parks Department for Pershing Square.

The revised agreement creates a 20-year window for the development to be completed.