A proposed mixed-use tower could change the skyline of one of America's most upscale cities.
Development firm Millennium Partners submitted plans to the City of Beverly Hills to redevelop a 20,000-square-foot strip retail center into the city's tallest tower with 227 luxury condos and 22 apartments set aside as affordable housing, 10,574 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space and a 473-car garage.
The property, located at 8300 Wilshire Blvd. at the city's eastern gateway, will be called The Eastern, with Handel Architects designing the project in conjunction with landscape architects Rios. The project's timeline will depend on approvals by the city.
The site sits a short walk east from the site of the under-construction Wilshire/La Cienega Metro station, slated to open later this year.
“We are putting high-rise housing where it belongs, and more critically, adding to the city’s housing stock without any loss of existing units," said Mario Palumbo Jr., managing partner of Millennium Partners Los Angeles, in a statement.
The Eastern's condominiums, smaller and less expensive than those at other Beverly Hills properties with an average size of 1,500 square feet, will cater to young families and professionals, Palumbo said. Rents in the city average $3,359 per month, above the greater LA average of $2,309 per month and the nation's average of $1,741 per month.
Beverly Hills bound
The Eastern isn't the only tall tower snaking its way through the development process in Beverly Hills.
The sprawling One Beverly Hills will feature a conference center, hotel, residences, pools, and open space across two mixed-use towers spanning 26 stories and 32 stories, when construction is complete in 2028.
More than half of the luxury condominiums in the first One Beverly Hills tower have already been sold, according to Jonathan Goldstein, CEO of Cain International, one of the $5 billion project's developers. Almost all of the demand is from wealthy Angelenos seeking to downsize into a home base while they travel internationally, Goldstein told Fox News.
Meanwhile, 19 high-rise projects are tapping a housing provision to move ahead in Beverly Hills, including a 20-story, 200-unit tower at 8844 Burton Way.
The so-called builder's remedy, which gives homebuilders leverage over California cities and their zoning codes, is possible only when cities and local municipalities don't have an approved plan to meet their housing development goals. Beverly Hills' housing development plan did not get approved until March of last year.
The Eastern is not New York City-based Millennium Partners' first move in Los Angeles. In May, the firm called off plans to build a $1 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot office and multifamily complex on the lots surrounding the iconic Capitol Records Building in Hollywood.