For several years, Jamison Services, Inc. has considered development plans for a parking lot just north of the Wilshire Professional Building at 626-634 St. Andrews Place.  After initially filing plans with the City of Los Angeles to construct a seven-story apartment building on the site in 2012, the Koreatown-based developer changed its mind in 2016, submitting an application to build a larger 16-story tower.  Now it seems that they have settled somewhere in the middle.

Yesterday, an entity affiliated with Jamison Services filed new plans to construct an eight-story, 227-unit development at the St. Andrews parking lot through the Transit Oriented Communities guidelines.  As currently comprised, the project would provide 25 deed-restricted affordable housing units, priced at the extremely-low-income level - or 30 percent of the area median income level.

The TOC guidelines have become a popular alternative to the SB818 density bonus program, offering more generous development incentives and a shorter entitlement pathway.  A recent report issued by the Planning Department found that TOC projects have thus far received discretionary entitlements three months after submission on average, a substantial decrease from the seven-month timeline typical in density bonus projects.  In comparison, both of Jamison's earlier submissions for the St. Andrews site took over one year to receive approvals from the City of Los Angeles.

Jamison, long one of the region's largest privately-held office landlords, has more recently become one of its most prolific residential developers.  The company has either started construction or completed more than a half-dozen developments in the past three years, and has more in the pipeline.  Within a few blocks of the St. Andrews parking lot, Jamison is under construction for 228 apartments at Wilshire Boulevard and Wilton Place, and 160 apartments near the intersection of 7th Street and Western Avenue.

MVE + Partners is designing the mid-rise development at St. Andrews Place.  Additional details regarding the project have not been announced.