In November, the City of Los Angeles issued an approval letter for a proposed mixed-use high-rise development a block south of Downtown's Whole Foods Market.

The project, slated for a surface parking lot spanning between 845 S. Olive Street and 842 S. Grand Avenue, calls for the construction of a 29-story building featuring 205 apartments above a podium structure containing 268 parking stalls and 2,400 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Plans call for a mixture of studio, one-, and two-bedroom dwellings.

The 350-foot tower is being designed by Togawa Smith Martin, and would include exterior finishes such as glass and metal panels. The project's parking podium - rising seven stories in height - would be masked by residential units along both Grand Avenue and Olive Street.

Project applicant Heart Olive has obtained approvals for a transfer of floor area rights to facilitate the tower's construction. The additional 49,900 square feet of floor area will require a payment of nearly $1.6 million, with an initial installment of approximately $800,000 to be distributed toward affordable housing, the DTLA Forward initiative, and the long-awaited revamp of Pershing Square.

Mike Condon, Erica Finck, and Brittany Winn of Cushman & Wakefield help the developer assemble the project site. The development is to be taken to market in early 2020, according to Condon.

Heart Olive's project would sit at the center of a newly sprouted concrete jungle, comprised of multiple high-rise developments from Onni Group, CIM Group, and Carmel Partners. Additional projects from Mitsui Fudosan America and Onni are also in the works for nearby parking lots.

The property also sits directly across Grand Avenue from the historic Trinity Auditorium, which has long been slated to reopen as a 183-room hotel.