Developer Carmel Partners has overcome an obstacle in its bid to build a multi-phased housing complex just south of Metro's Expo/Bundy Station in Sawtelle.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has voted to uphold the approval of a component of Carmel's Bundy Block development at 2301 S. Bundy Drive, rejecting an appeal which had sought to block the project's construction. Set to replace a cluster of single-family homes at the southwest corner of Bundy Drive and Tennessee Avenue, the proposed development calls for the construction of an eight-story building which would feature 195 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments with parking for 177 vehicles.
View looking southeast from Amherst AvenueTCA Architects
Carmel's approvals rely on Transit Oriented Communities incentives to permit a larger, denser development than would normally be allowed by zoning rules. I exchange, 22 of the new apartments would be set aside for rent as affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.
TCA Architects is designing the contemporary podium-type building, which would include habitable spaces and live/work along its street frontages facing Bundy Drive to the east, Amherst Avenue to the west, and Tennessee Avenue to the north.
The project was faced with an appeal from Anthony K. Sperl and Ervin Blloshmi, an abutting property owner and tenant, who pushed for the project should be scaled back in size, and argued that its construction would worsen crime, traffic congestion, and other issues plaguing the Sawtelle area. A staff reporting, finding no evidence to support the claims raised in the appeal, recommended denial.
The new apartment building at 2301 Bundy is one of three which Carmel has planned for the previously single-family zoned area to the south of Expo/Bundy Station. The projects, enabled by new zoning rules approved through the Exposition Corridor Transit Neighborhood Plan, will create a combined total of 621 residential units, as well as a small amount of retail space.
Site plan for properties from 2201-2301 S Bundy DriveTCA Architects
Carmel's new apartments follow on the heels of the West Edge, a larger mixed-use project now wrapping up work at the former site of Martin Cadillac at Bundy Drive and Olympic Boulevard, which will include 600 apartments, a Gelson's supermarket, and a 200,000-square-foot office building leased by Riot Games.
San Francisco-based Carmel has long had a proclivity for building near Metro's E Line stops. In 2020, the company completed work on Linea, a 595-unit apartment complex with retail next to Expo/Sepulveda Station. The developer has more recently completed work on the Cumulus District, a sprawling complex next to La Cienega/Jefferson Station with more than 1,200 homes and a Whole Foods Market.
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