Seven month after receiving approvals for a 27-story apartment tower in Chinatown, Townline and Forme Development are now seeking entitlements for a second project in Koreatown.

The proposed development, called Soul, would replace a parking lot at 550 Shatto Place.  Plans call for the construction of a 32-story tower featuring 252 residential units, as well as four two-story townhouses seated atop 2,507 square feet of ground-floor office space.  The project site also includes a small church at the corner of Shatto and 6th Street - built in phases starting in the 1930s - which would be preserved and reused as approximately 12,800 square feet of restaurant space with an outdoor patio.

Townline and Forme, which acquired the property in partnership with Los Angeles-based Urban Offerings, are seeking entitlements for the project using Transit Oriented Communities affordable housing incentives - one of only two high-rise developments to make use of the program thus far.  In exchange for increases in allowable floor area and density, the proposed development would set aside 29 units as affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.

Plans also call for 329 parking spaces, which would be located in four subsurface levels.

Chris Dikeakos Architects is designing the tower, which has been described as having a "pixelated look."  The glass and steel structure would stand 341 feet at its apex.

Construction of the tower is anticipated to occur over 26 months.  For the purposes of environmental review, the project's construction timeline is anticipated to begin in the second quarter of 2019 and conclude by 2021.  No building or demolition permits associated with Soul have been sought by the developer to date.

The developers are aiming for the proposed tower to be designated as a Sustainable Communities project, a status which would exempt the project from requiring a full environmental impact report.  The Sustainable Communities Environmental Assessment is available to projects which dedicate at least half of their total floor area to residential use, with a minimum density of 20 units per acre, and sit within a half-mile of a major transit stop.  Soul would rise a block north of the Wilshire/Vermont subway station.

Should the project break down, it would join two other high-rise developments now rising in Koreatown - a 20-story Los Angeles County office tower on Vermont Avenue and a 23-story apartment tower at 2900 Wilshire Boulevard.