A presentation scheduled for the March 4 meeting of the Santa Monica Architectural Review Board offers a fresh look at plans to redevelop a shopping center and Ocean Park and Lincoln Boulevards with housing.

The project, planned for a 4.7-acre site at 2601 Lincoln Boulevard, comes from property owner Balboa Retail Partners and developer Cypress Equity Investments. Plans call for construction of 12 interconnected buildings featuring a total of 521 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments above 30,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial uses and parking.

Lincoln PlazaKoning Eizenberg Architecture

The mixed-use complex would also incorporate 53 units of deed-restricted affordable housing, according to a plan set previously submitted to the Architectural Review Board.

Koning Eizenberg and AC Martin are designing 2601 Lincoln, which would feature buildings up to six stories in height, built around a network of courtyards and passageways. Plans call for buildings clad in a combination of grey metal paneling, composite wood siding, and white smooth stucco, among other materials.

Ocean Park BoulevardKoning Eizenberg Architecture

"The overall concept for the project is a layered transition between the commercial fabric on Lincoln Boulevard and the 'garden neighborhood' to the east, with mixed-use buildings along Lincoln Boulevard and fully residential buildings to the east," reads a staff report. "These buildings are then woven together with a network of landscaped spaces and pathways with a public plaza facing Lincoln boulevard and residential buildings and gardens stepping up Ocean Park Boulevard."

Cypress Equity Investments, which has been one of Santa Monica's most prolific developers in recent years, has already built a series of smaller projects on Lincoln Boulevard in the city's downtown, as well as projects along the Wilshire corridor. The project at 2601 Lincoln would be its largest in Santa Monica to date.

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