Impressed by its design, Glendale City Council OKs development of medical-office building on Colorado

The City Council on Tuesday signed off on plans to construct a four-story medical-office building on Colorado Street, one of the first projects to gain approval since the last of a series of mixed-use developments in downtown.

Slated to be built on the site of a carpet store at 500 E. Colorado St. and a surface parking lot, the council voted 4-0 to demolish properties on the project site to make way for the 27,000-square-foot structure.

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The project lies within the borders of the Downtown Specific Plan zone, which requires all proposals to head to the council for review instead of commissions such as the Design Review Board. The plan, adopted in 2006, allowed for construction of large-scale projects to create a more prominent downtown.

Councilman Ara Najarian voted against nearly all major mixed-use development projects, such as the 494-unit Next on Lex and 235-unit Modera, because he thought downtown was getting too crowded. However, he felt the medical-office building would be a good fit and praised the project’s use of glass throughout the building.

“I usually don’t like the modern style. I think the use of glass makes it very unique … Colorado is one of our signature streets. I think this street is where this type of structure belongs.”

Councilman Zareh Sinanyan agreed, saying the glass walls are a welcome change from the types of designs he’s seen in other parts of downtown.

“[The project] is not massive. It’s not like these panels of concrete which all of the new buildings we’re building in Glendale have,” he said. “They’re supposed to be modern buildings, but they really aren’t. They’re heavy-looking buildings.”

Sinanyan added that the medical-office building’s design was not oppressive.

The structure will have an L-shape that allows for open space on the street frontage, even more space than zoning code requires.

The surface lot will remain, and there will also be a subterranean parking lot built underneath it. The two combined will have 156 parking spaces, according to a planning staff report.

There will also be room for ground-floor retail. The building will be operated by the company ProHealth.

City Manager Scott Ochoa told council members he felt the proposal on the table would further economic activity in Glendale.

“What we are seeing, especially with our three hospitals continuing to grow and diversify, is a need for additional medical-office space in town,” he said.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian

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