A short walk from L.A. State Historic Park in Chinatown, a food processing facility has made way for the neighborhood's next housing and commercial development.

The property, located at 1457 N. Main Street, was recently approved for the construction of a six-story structure which would contain 376 studio and one-bedroom apartments on its upper floors and 6,448 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Plans also call for parking for  104 vehicles.

1457 N Main Street in ChinatownUrbanize LA

Thrive Living, the applicant behind the project, will be required to set aside 42 apartments for rent as extremely low-income affordable housing as a condition of approval.

The approved plan for 1457 Main, designed by AO, calls for the use of prefabricated modular units, which would be built off site and assembled at the property. Plans show a contemporary exterior of painted stucco, with open spaces including a rooftop deck and street-level courtyards.

1457 N Main StreetGoogle Maps

The proposed apartment complex is one of a growing number of new residential developments transitioning industrial zone to the east of L.A. State Historic Park, following the Llewelyn apartments and a 280-unit apartment complex now rising one block northwest at 200 N. Mesnager Street. The neighborhood's largest project, the 725-unit College Station development, has been approved for a site along Spring Street since 2019, but has yet to begin work.

In addition to being a sign of things to come in Chinatown, the project is also an entree to large ambitions for Ben Shaoul of New York-based Thrive Living, who announced plans in January 2023 to build an 800-unit apartment complex with a Costco on its ground floor in Baldwin Hills. That project would also be composed of prefabricated modular units.

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