Frequently Asked Questions
PROJECT SITE
Both retail entities themselves will not return to the project, once completed.
Wilshire Beauty Supply has secured a new permanent location one-half block to the east, at 5300 Wilshire Blvd. Their phone number and website remain the same.
The Staples Office Supply store has secured a new permanent retail location – the former Max Office store at Wilshire Boulevard and Masselin Avenue.
PROCESS
Compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is the responsibility of the City of Los Angeles, as the ‘lead agency’ exercising jurisdiction over the Project. The Project will commence with the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and public engagement later in 2022.
The state-mandated environmental review process, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), affords multiple opportunities for public comment. Regarding the City’s approval process, there will be a series of public hearings, date to be determined, before the Los Angeles City Hearing Officer, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, and the Los Angeles City Council.
Since 2019 the project’s leadership team has been conducting briefings with residential and commercial community groups and will continue to do so throughout the process. We also have a project website (5411wilshire.com) and a project information hotline (323) 813-5101 as ongoing means for the community to engage with us.
Please voice your support for the project by filling out our online support form at 5411wilshire.com/#support.
We hope to break ground in early 2024 and anticipate up to three years of construction.
HOUSING
Applicants for rent-restricted affordable units must complete an application and qualify the income of all members of their household, in accordance with guidelines imposed by the Los Angeles Department of Housing and Community Development.
The application process has not commenced.
Pricing for market-rate units has not yet been established.
RETAIL
The tenant selection has not been made. We have ground floor space planned for retail stores, cafe, and restaurant/bar. Our goal is to bring in locally based operators. Please feel free to email us at hello@5411wilshire.com or call us at (323) 813-5101 to let us know your thoughts regarding retail and restaurant preferences.
CONSTRUCTION
We contemplate a short period of time following completion of the entitlements approval process, which could be in Q4 2023.
We anticipate the construction period to be 32 to 36 months.
As regulated by City ordinance, construction will not commence prior to 7 a.m., nor continue past 9 p.m. Construction will typically occur Monday through Friday with occasional Saturday work as needed that would not commence prior to 8 a.m. or past 6 p.m.
Our construction teams will require all their workers to park in designated areas off of public side streets. We will secure formal arrangements with nearby: private parking lots for construction parking and, if necessary, transport workers from the parking areas to the project site, via the subway line or Wilshire bus network. The exact location of these construction parking areas will be finalized prior to the start of construction.
Consistent with City ordinances and requirements, construction machinery and equipment will be outfitted with sound suppressors and other measures to reduce noise. Of course, some noise is unavoidable with any large-scale construction project, but our teams will work as hard as reasonably possible to reduce noise impacts on the surrounding areas.
We will establish a 24-hour ‘hotline’ and a website for questions concerning construction. We will also post this community contact information on site.
MOBILITY
For our residents and employees, the Project will offer several mobility options, namely: Wilshire bus network, Red Line subway along Wilshire, e-bikes and Project based carsharing programs. Our goal is to incite and encourage residents to elect not to have that second car (or, even that first one); as for employees, we will deploy the same efforts.
For our patrons (those coming to the Project to shop and dine), we have designed on-site ride hailing in the porte-cochere drive, which is safe and secure. We will also include EV charging stations in the upper, public parking areas as well as a carsharing program.
For our neighbors, we will invite and encourage all to follow what is available to our patrons. Especially, for ride hailing needs, we hope most will come to our building to be picked up or dropped as our side streets are narrow and we personally know that when a rail hailing car stops and waits along Cochran or Cloverdale it creates havoc for us all.
We believe immediate future growth and ground floor retail engagement along Wilshire and La Brea will blossom in the years ahead. We believe that the neighborhood walkability and connectivity with shops, dining establishments and, of course, our cultural institutions will be strong.
With the provision of 478 parking spaces in total, (402 automated, electric-charging and 76 conventional), we believe we have the right count of parking for tenants and patrons. Our tenants and neighbors will have access to shared vehicles to reduce the need for parking as well.
We will create congestion management programs that will involve TAP-cards and other commuting incentives for employees and operators of the commercial portions of the project. We anticipate that irrespective of a regional incentive program, our residential tenant incentives will include unbundled parking and a period of TAP-card provision to new residents.
The project intends to include car sharing in both the upper parking levels for patrons and subterranean levels for residents. We are exploring the potential for electric bike sharing.
We have designed a safe and easy pick up and drop off location on-site, inside the porte cochere for residents, employees and our neighbors.
AFFORDABILITY
The project will not displacing any existing residents from our neighborhood.
We are in a housing shortage and that is the root of the problem. Housing experts from local academia from USC to UCLA agree that we need additional housing at all levels of affordability will address the shortage. Affordability starts with supply. For Los Angeles to overcome this gap between supply and demand, we must encourage the addition of new housing stock.
Market rate housing holds an important place in this calculus, given that new people coming to Los Angeles from higher priced markets to a community without adequate supply, without anywhere else to go, they will outbid lower-income earners and drive up rents. Thus, the argument noted above holds.
We are fortunate and pleased that the Project will hold three levels of economic pricing for the rental units, namely: market rate, rent restricted at Very Low (50% of AMI) and Moderate (120% of AMI); few if any private built residential projects in Los Angeles offer these model.
Both types of the affordable units (a count of 39 units) will have rent caps, but the other units will be subject to the dynamics of the market.
OPEN SPACE
Along Wilshire, the project proposes Canary Island Date Palm trees, which would provide shade while also preserving the visibility of our ground level commercial space for our retailers and restaurants. Additionally, the ground floor is setback from the level above, which allows for some additional shade in the public right-of-way. The Canary Island Date Palms would match the trees on the South side of Wilshire Boulevard, creating a beautiful colonnade style streetscape effect. Along Cochran, the project proposes Brisbane Box trees and along Cloverdale the Cajeput Tree.
Historic resources are currently being analyzed and will be completed upon release of the CEQA mandated environmental document. However, we do not anticipate an impact. The project also includes the preserving in place of the two façades of the former Wilshire Beauty Supply Store on Wilshire Boulevard and reconstituting the building envelope to its original volume.
This project will not remove any existing housing on the site.