Casden Details Plans for Apartment Project
Plans for one of the largest apartment developments in the Los Angeles area in years have been unveiled by Casden Properties Inc., which plans to start construction in November on the luxury housing complex.
Beverly Hills-based Casden paid $75 million in August for three parcels on the periphery of Park La Brea, a massive apartment community bordering the Miracle Mile and Fairfax districts. Casden plans to build nearly 1,400 apartments, designed primarily for wealthy professionals who are considered renters by choice.
The company, headed by veteran apartment developers Alan and Henry Casden, will invest more than $300 million to build three guard-gated communities.
The unnamed series of four- and five-story Spanish Revival-style buildings will rise on sites totaling more than 12 acres that Casden acquired from the owners of 4,222-unit Park La Brea.
Construction of two communities, totaling 771 units, will start in November, with the third, 610-unit development starting next year, said Alan Casden, chairman of the company.
Since the Fairfax and Miracle Mile districts attract many young executives and professional couples, Casden said, the development will feature a health club, business center and concierge and large units with high-speed Internet wiring.
Plans designed by Santa Monica’s Van Tilburg Banvard & Soderbergh feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with the largest exceeding 2,000 square feet. The first buildings aren’t scheduled to open until early 2001, Casden said, so rental rates haven’t been set. Rents for nearby luxury units, however, are now as high as $1.90 per square foot per month.
Casden noted that the plans are guided by a development agreement a previous Park La Brea owner forged with Los Angeles building authorities in the early 1990s.
The agreement also calls for construction of an affordable senior housing community, which the company plans to develop after the three primary phases are complete.
Apartment broker Robin Ossenbeck of Marcus & Millichap said the Casden project will help fulfill the area’s strong demand for rental housing.
Centrally located Park La Brea and other Miracle Mile-area apartment communities have historically maintained high occupancies, she said. The area’s estimated occupancy rate is now 97%.
Ossenbeck also noted that Los Angeles is facing a growing housing shortage, brought on by population and employment growth, in a metropolitan area with little land available for development.
Casden Properties earlier this year raised $390 million through a private stock offering that enabled it to convert to a private real estate investment trust. The company has about 1,600 employees and market capitalization of more than $1.4 billion.
In April, Casden launched a $90- million, 624-unit development on the site of the former Centinela drive-in theater near Westchester.
