Santa Monica-based MJW Investments Inc. said it...

Santa Monica-based MJW Investments Inc. said it has received the entitlements it needs from the City of Los Angeles to go ahead with a large office, retail and housing project in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles.

Company President Mark J. Weinstein said his firm will proceed with plans to build 604 loft-style apartments and about 200,000-square-feet of retail, office and other commercial space. The project, which is called Santee Court, features the conversion of numerous garment manufacturing buildings on three blocks located between Seventh Street and Olympic Boulevard. The renovated structures will be linked by existing alleyways and tunnels.

Weinstein said one building is already in the process of being converted into office and fashion showroom space. The first phase of housing, amounting to 171 units, is scheduled to be completed by September 2003, said Weinstein, whose firm owns and manages about 2 million square feet of commercial space and about 1,000 apartments in California.

A Times Staff Writer

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The city of El Segundo has approved plans by Los Angeles-based Thomas Properties Group to transform a former Rockwell aerospace facility into a 46-acre corporate campus.

The El Segundo City Council approved the proposal over the objections of a group supported by Kilroy Realty Corp., which owns an office complex near the Thomas Properties’ development site. The opposition group, citing concerns about increased traffic congestion, has threatened to launch a referendum campaign against the project if city leaders approved the plans.

Thomas Properties’ plans for the El Segundo Corporate Campus include more than 2 million square feet of office and other commercial space for the property, which is located east of Sepulveda Boulevard between Nash and Douglas streets.

The site also will include space for a fire station, day-care center and five acres for soccer fields.

No commercial space at the project has been pre-leased to tenants, according to spokesman David Herbst.

The property was once the site of a proposed distribution center for Federal Express.

But the shipping company dropped its proposal after it was rejected by the city.

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A Times Staff Writer