Crews are now tearing down a cold storage facility in the Sixth Street Viaduct in the Arts District, where the City of Los Angeles has approved plans for the development of a mixed-use office building.

The project site, located at 640 S. Santa Fe Avenue, was developed with its current tilt-up concrete structure in the late 1990s.  Plans calls for replacing the building with a four-story structure containing nearly 100,000 square feet offices, 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space, and 217 parking stalls located in a surface lot and two underground levels.

EYRC Architects is designing the contemporary low-rise structure, which is called ProduceLA.  Architectural plans show an exterior of concrete and plaster, with the building capped by a 4,200-square-foot rooftop amenity deck.

The $100-million project is being developed by Denver-based real estate investment firm Continuum Partners, which sold a stake in the property to Beverly Hills-based Platinum Equity in July 2019 for a reported sum of $29 million.

“ProduceLA is an extremely rare site as it sits both within a Qualified Opportunity Zone and in the heart of one of the West Coast’s hottest markets, Downtown LA’s Arts District,” said Continuum Partners Development Director Roger Pecsok in a news release. “We’re excited to be underway with demolition and should begin vertical construction by Labor Day.”  

Pankow is serving as general contractor for ProduceLA, which is expected to attain LEED GOld Certification upon completion in late 2020.

ProduceLA begins work at a time when Arts District office space has suddenly become a hot commodity.  One block south at 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, Warner Music Group recently moves its West Coast headquarters to a restored Ford Factory.  A block north, Spotify has leased 111,000 square feet of office space at the At Mateo complex.

The office building will rise just north of 695 Santa Fe Avenue, where construction is now wrapping up on the 320-unit AMP Lofts.

Continuum Partners also owns a second property one block away at 647 Mateo Street, which it also plans to redevelop.