The $2 billion real estate development was approved by the City Council on Tuesday and will include residences, low-income housing, shops and restaurants
A new addition to the Downtown Los Angeles skyline in the form of a $2 billion real estate development, including more than 1,500 residences, was approved by the L.A. City Council on Tuesday.
The complex, Fourth & Central, would span over 7.6 acres of Downtown, taking over what is currently a collection of cold storage facilities and parking lots in Skid Row, bordering the Arts District.
The mixed-use development would include residential units as well as office and restaurant spaces within 10 buildings, including a 30-story skyscraper, 572 condominiums, 949 apartments and at least 260 low-income units, according to the Los Angeles Times.
After Fourth & Central was first announced in 2021, the project underwent a review process including an environmental impact report. According to Fourth & Central’s website, the project would be fully electric and greenhouse-gas net-neutral.
The Little Tokyo Community Council issued a statement in opposition to the proposed development in 2024, due to concerns about its potential impact on the nearby historic neighborhood, including furthering gentrification. But after negotiations, last month they signed a Community Benefits Agreement with the Cold Storage Project team, which includes a promise of 2,500 square feet of commercial retail space at a 50% discounted rate, reserved for community-serving businesses and nonprofits in Little Tokyo and Skid Row.
“We have literally spent years working on our plan to transform this industrial property into a mixed-use community,” said President of Los Angeles Cold Storage, Larry Rauch, in a statement to the L.A. Times. “To hear our city’s decision-makers agree with our vision for what Downtown Los Angeles can and should be makes today’s major milestone all the more rewarding.”
Architect Alan Pullman of the firm Studio One Eleven, which is overseeing the development’s design, told the L.A. Times at the time the project was announced that it is meant to feel like a walkable community and an “organic part of the city.”
In addition to living spaces, the development will feature a courtyard and pedestrian areas as well as banks, dry cleaners, fashion or arts stores and more to serve its residents and the surrounding community, according to the L.A. Times.
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The Downtown Women’s Center will help to identify and select residents for the very low and extremely low income units, and provide on-site care including case management, nursing, occupational therapy, substance abuse support and workforce development, according to the L.A. Times.
The project is expected to break ground in approximately two years, according to KTLA.
“We are big believers in the potential of our city, and that’s why we have chosen to make this substantive investment in its future,” Rauch said in a statement to the L.A. Times.