One block north of Metro's Expo/Crenshaw Station in West Adams, a stretch of automobile repair businesses is poised to make way for new mixed-income housing and commercial uses.

This week, prolific South L.A. developer SoLa Impact filed an application with the L.A. Department of City Planning seeking approvals for the construction of a new mixed-use development at 3501 S. Crenshaw Boulevard. The project, which would rise at the northwest corner of Crenshaw and 36th Street, calls for the construction of a new six-story building featuring 136 one- and two-bedroom apartments (plus one accessory dwelling unit) above approximately 1,300 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking for 57 vehicles.

3501 S Crenshaw BoulevardGoogle Street View

Requested project entitlements include Transit Oriented Communities incentives, which would permit the construction of a larger building than otherwise allowed by zoning rules. In exchange, SoLa Impact would be required to set aside 15 of the new apartments as affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.

Open Office is designing 3501 Crenshaw, which is depicted in renderings as a contemporary podium-type building clad in painted stucco and fiber cement boards. Plans show a building with an O-shaped footprint, wrapping around a central courtyard, with additional open space provided through a large amenity deck at the rooftop.

3501 S Crenshaw BoulevardGoogle Maps

The project is the latest in a series of new developments planned near Expo/Crenshaw Station, including an 81-unit apartment building slated to rise from a property at the opposite side of 36th and Crenshaw, and the 401-unit Crenshaw Crossing complex, which would be built on Metro and L.A. County-owned land next to the station. Those follow recent income-restricted developments, such as an affordable housing complex which opened in 2019 on a nearby site at 3411 S. Crenshaw Boulevard.

SoLa Impact, founded in 2015, develops affordable and mixed-income housing across South Los Angeles and other neighborhoods using opportunity zone funds. The company's portfolio, which totals more than 1,500 affordable units, includes a similar mixed-use project which recently commenced work in Baldwin Hills.

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