A proposal to redevelop a car wash at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street with a slim mixed-use tower is scheduled to be considered at next week's meeting of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission.

The project, submitted to the City of Los Angeles by an entity affiliated with the Neman family in 2015, calls for the construction of a 57-story building containing approximately:

  • 65,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space,
  • 33,500 square feet of office space
  • 10,800 square feet of hotel meeting space
  • 373 hotel rooms
  • 374 condominiums; and
  • 838 parking stalls in six below-grade levels and an eight-story podium.

Nardi Associates is designing the tower, which would stand 742 feet tall on a roughly 37,000-square-foot site.  At ground level, the Figueroa and Olympic frontages would be lined with retail space, with automobile access restricted to Cottage Place, an alley along the western property line.  The tower would incorporate three amenity decks - located on the 13th, 56th, and 57th floors - including fitness centers, pools, and lounge areas.

The project requires a transfer of floor area rights to achieve its proposed height and density, and would come with an $18 million public benefits package as a result.  That money would be split evenly between a cash payment and a direct provision of funds for affordable housing and the revamp of Pershing Square.

In addition to project entitlements, the City Planning Commission is also expected to consider an appeal of the tower's vesting tentative tract map by UNITE HERE Local 11, a labor union which represents hotel employees.  The appeal argues that the approved tract map should be overturned due to purported errors in the project's environmental impact report.

A staff response to the appeal disputes these claims, and recommends that the tract map and other project entitlements should be approved by the Commission.

The tower's environmental study has previously estimated a 34-month construction timeline, although a groundbreaking date has not been announced.

Building off of the adjacent L.A. Live development across the street, plans have been announced for slew of other high-rise residential and hotel developments on nearby properties.  Just north on Figueroa Street, a longtime parking lot is slated for a similar 66-story tower that would be the third tallest building in Los Angeles.  A few blocks west on Olympic, a three-tower complex is slated for a property flanking the Harbor Freeway.