Mitsui Fudosan Gets Green Light for L.A. Apartment Tower

After three appeals that tried to block it on environmental grounds, a project for a downtown Los Angeles apartment tower—first proposed in 2017—finally has received a green light from the City Council.

Mitsui Fudosan America has received approval to build a 50-story apartment tower encompassing 580 units at 754 South Hope Street on a site now occupied by a parking garage and a surface parking lot.

The apartment tower, known as 8th Grand & Hope, will sit above 7,500 SF of ground-floor retail and restaurants. An above-grade parking garage, which will have space for 640 vehicles, may be converted later into an additional 189 apartments, according to a report in Urbanize L.A.

The 550K SF building will include 65K of open space, as well as a pool, gym and spa. The project will be designed by Gensler to feature a Mid-Century Modern look in a stepped building clad in glass, concrete and aluminum with stacks of white balconies. The stepped-back sections will create terraced decks.

The tower requires the transfer of development rights to provide additional floor area, for which Mitsui Fudosan America (MFA), the U.S. arm of Tokyo-based Mitsui Fudosan, will pay $9.8M, half of which will be set aside for the Council District 14 affordable housing trust fund.

MFA has owned the property since the 1980s and first applied to the city for entitlements in 2017.

The project drew opposition from Creed LA and a group called Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, both affiliated with construction trade units, who argued that the environmental impact assessment on the project contained deficiencies, the report said.

On June 25, the City Council voted to reject the appeals and approve the project. A third appeal, filed by the developer of a proposed 13-story data center, was withdrawn in May.

Several new downtown residential towers have been proposed south of 7th Street.

More than a year ago, a 41-story tower was proposed by National Real Estate Advisors to be built on top of a 12-story parking garage that is part of The Bloc, a mixed-development on Hope Street.

Plans call for 466 apartment units and a sculpted glass rooftop wrapped around an open-air amenity deck. The plans also call for a terraced, landscape rooftop for the parking garage.