NORTH HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - A development company is moving forward with a proposed $1 billion mixed-use complex that would surround the entrance to the North Hollywood Metro Red Line subway station and adjacent transit center served by the cross-San Fernando Valley Orange Line bus route.
The proposal by developer Trammell Crow Co.'s housing group High Street Residential and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls for a village called District NoHo that would include apartments, offices, stores, bars and restaurants, according to Metro documents.
The company plans to file applications with city in the coming weeks.
According to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the proposal, it would be the largest development at a Metro station in an era that has seen a flurry of construction around train stops as new rail lines branch out around the county.
``Over the past two years, Trammell Crow Company/High Street Residential and its consultant teams have engaged in extensive discussions with Metro and the city of Los Angeles about the design and development of District NoHo and how to best align our development with Metro and the city's transit- oriented development goals for the North Hollywood station and North Hollywood more broadly,'' said Brad Cox, a senior managing director with Trammell Crow. ``We expect those collaborative discussions to continue, following the filing of the entitlement applications for the project, which we anticipate occurring in the coming weeks.''
Development sites around the NoHo train station were assembled by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which was disbanded in 2012. Other new stations such as those being built along Wilshire Boulevard are in densely developed neighborhoods, making it harder to find adjacent sites for new construction.
``We probably won't have an opportunity like this again,'' Wells Lawson, a senior director in the Metro's joint development group. told The Times.
The North Hollywood site is nearly 16 acres. The proposed development would include 1,500 apartments, a 10-story office tower and various dining and entertainment options. There would be about three acres of open space that could be used for public events such as concerts, according to documents on Metro's website.
According to a website for the project, www.nohosnextact.com, officials estimate the project could start construction in 2021 and could be completed in phases over the next 10 years.
``Our goal is to create a project of regional significance that would bring to the valley a live-work-play dense urban environment,'' Cox said. ``The east valley doesn't really have a true urban node.''
The apartments are to be divided among six different buildings, with two of them containing a combined 300 units designated affordable, or 20% of the total, The Times reported. Renters who earn no more than 60% of the area's median income at the time would qualify for a lottery to become residents.
The other 1,200 units will rent at market rates, and Cox anticipates that many of the occupants will work in the entertainment industry.