Groundbreaking begins today on Onni Group’s new 32-story apartment tower at 9th and Olive in Downtown LA (Photo: Ryan Lehman)
Better late than never right? What was supposed to be a “Dec 1, 2012″ groundbreaking for Vancouver-based Onni Group’s 32-story apartment tower at 9th and Olive has been delayed until now, almost two months later. A reader sends in this photo from today that shows construction activity has now finally begun in earnest for the 888 Olive tower. Fencing has been put up around the perimeter and construction equipment and crews were spotted on site performing pre-construction work.
The new tower when completed will have 283 units for rent (potentially more than 400 new residents added to the downtown population) and a whopping 11,000 square feet of commercial retail space on the ground floor that could help activate the intersection substantially, while also helping to connect the southern part of the Historic Core to South Park and the Financial District.
If construction continues forward as projected, 888 Olive will be completed in late 2015/early 2016.
An updated rendering of 888 Olive shows a gleaming glass tower adjacent to the historic 1926 Coast Savings Building at 9th/Olive (Photo: Onni Group)
Groundbreaking also began today behind Bottega Louie at 8th & Grand. Exciting stuff!
Such exciting news – let’s hope in a couple years those 8th and 9th street corridors become a big name, brand name, retail hub (mixed with local and independent of course!!)
This is so badly needed! When I walk from the Historic Core to Grand Hope Park (something I do pretty often since I have a 5-year-old), I hate going down 8th and 9th west of Broadway because they are such dead spaces. They don’t feel unsafe, just dreary and uninteresting. Looking forward to seeing those blocks activated.
It’s amazing isn’t it?…
Why is it that this developer can build 30+ floors while all the other developers continue on with their cookie-cutter 6-8 story boxes? Even the residential suburbs I’ve seen in Europe have old apartment buildings 8 to 12 floors high, and their not even in the central core. Do the various districts in DTLA reflect that much market volatility? Or is it the financing? Or how about the VISION and RISK each developer is willing to bet on in our downtown community?
Whatever combination it is, I’d like to thank this Canadian firm for having the vision to do this right. Thanks Onni for adding a high-density tower for the given amount of space on that corner. The structural density of this building will nicely accomodate the population growth of downtown for decades to come. Go Los Angeles! :-)
@John G. The reason is anything above 6 stories requires steel instead of wood and the costs go up tremendously so it’s either build it really tall or keep it 6 stories short.
John, not every building downtown can be a highrise. If it penciled out, developers would be doing it. When all the gaps have been filled in – the parking lots built on, and the 2-story stucco crap torn down and replaced with 4-8 story buildings, you’ll see a lot more highrises proposed. Give it 10-15 more years.
@ Johnny L,
I don’t think it’s really tall or short because there are plenty of buildings in between getting built now. For example, the Arquitechtonica project is 19 floors and the Marriott Towers is 23, much taller than 6 stories. Then, you have the Wilshire Grand Tower that goes up 70 floors. As far as the cost goes with the price of steel, it seems this is more a financing issue among the different developers.
Definitely one of the sexist residential bldgs to built in DTLA in awhile hopefully it wont be the last
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