Culver City : Studio Drive-In Developer

After more than seven months of competition, Watt Homes this week won the design contest to develop a condominium, townhouse and senior citizen housing project on the Studio Drive-In site at Sepulveda and Jefferson Boulevards.

The Culver City Redevelopment Agency voted 3 to 2 Monday to enter into negotiations with the Santa Monica-based company to build a 177-unit development on the 9.5-acre site.

Agency Chairman Jim Boulgarides and member Steven Gourley voted against the motion.

Watt’s proposal, “The Marquee,” is for a gated community of 94 townhouses, 32 condominiums, and a 51-unit senior complex, featuring a circular access road and central recreational green space and swimming pool.

The estimated average cost of the townhouses and condominiums is $283,000.

Watt’s design was selected over ones by Goldrich & Kest, which proposed a 196-unit complex featuring an underground parking garage, and D & S Co., which proposed a 190-unit project built around courtyards and featuring a large day-care center it intended to build and donate to a nonprofit operator.

Under an agency stipulation, a quarter of the condominium and townhouse units built on the site are to be sold at reduced prices to moderate-income buyers.

Boulgarides said he thought the proposed projects were too dense for the area, and Gourley said he could not vote for a project that he did not see as “overwhelmingly beneficial” to the city.

As part of its motion, the agency selected the D & S proposal as its alternate selection.