new parking garage bringing retail to 8th and hope
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One of the two empty lots on 8th and Hope adjacent to the Market Lofts is now undergoing construction, confirmed today by several construction workers on site.
Demolition work on the east wall of the 830 Flower Street building has begun, and three port-a-potties on location suggest that hard work is to commence soon (or just too many stops at the Coffee Bean next door).
According to CIM Group, the lot will transform into a seven-story parking garage holding 75-100 parking spots for public use and 602 parking stalls for occupants of Market Lofts, Gas Company Lofts, and future residents of planned towers on surrounding blocks.
The most exciting aspect of the project is the 4,000 to 5,000 square feet of retail space that will be built on Hope Street and the 18,000 square feet to be added on Flower Street. Who knows what will be arriving, but the addition of that much retail will surely change the block for the better. The scheduled completion of the parking structure is not until October 2, 2009, so one can only imagine when the new tenants would open.
Let us know what you’d like to see fill in that new retail space in the comments!
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16 comments
Contemporary clothing retail and a mid-sized bookstore.
Would love to see some nice retail, like you said a book store or a nice reatiler, in the space.
Just some inside info - residents were sent a notice a month ago to get cars outs of the lot. Then two weeks later a lengthy notice came around detailing the parking garage, how the spots would be allocated amongst the buildings and when they hoped it would all be completed.
i’m probably the only pissed person here but i live in the market lofts and we will be receiving guest parking but the guests have to pay because of this mixed use parking structure and i’m sorry but that sucks. it’s so difficult to find reasonable parking anywhere in downtown you’d hope to find some within your own building. i’m down and ready for the retail though and for my car to get inside! brian if you live in market lofts with me you’ll feel my guest parking pain! sorry for the venting i needed to release some frustration!
Jorda - isn’t their plenty of free street parking after 6 pm on the weekdays? What about after 3 pm on Saturdays? And then all day Sunday? Parking garages cost money, that’s the darn truth. You pay for it through the HOA. These garages take up valuable space, but the developer needs somewhat of a return. It sucks, but it’s economics. That’s why we need to make street parking a more viable option in LA with the reduction of anti-gridlock zoning!
I was walking on 8th street under the 110 overpass, and there is 10 hour parking. $1.00 gets you 7 hours. Woohoo!
“That’s why we need to make street parking a more viable option in LA with the reduction of anti-gridlock zoning!”
Here here. 40% of the parking is eliminated for no good reason!
Driving on a Saturday and seeing a bunch of nice cars parked on the sidewalk is better than seeing no cars AND no pedestrians! Makes it feel like a ghost town.
Anyhow. Guest parking is difficult in many places. It is what it is. I always park several blocks away from friends on the west side due to lack of parking.
AS for the 100 public parking spaces….They need to make sure its affordable. SF has tons of garages that are 4-6 dollars for 2-3 hours. I don’t want to see any 10 dollar flat rate crap going in.
Jorda: Not that it matters but we rent in the Market Lofts and don’t own. Having said that …
It is a little disappointing there will be little to no guest parking. I would assume the reason is because the parking lot is set to service 4-5 residential buildings and there are only so many spaces.
I think the guest parking situation is only going to get worse however with so many residential buildings popping up in the core.
It’s always a bit disappointing to not have guest parking, but I live in the Historic Core and not only is there no adjacent/included guest parking, there’s no adjacent/included resident parking either. We make use of the neighborhood structure.
When friends come over, they have to park on the street or pay the $3-$6 depending on location and time of day.
LAofAnaheim: you’d be surprised how little street parking there is. it’s isn’t a matter of spaces but because of the retail under the market lofts mainly because of ralphs and because some occupants of the market lofts have two cars and we are only alloted one space per unit street parking is cut throat. i get the economics of the structure but your right there’s a need for more street parking throughout downtown. when i bought my unit we were told there would be ample free guest parking and that’s just not turning out to be the case. i’m more mad about that then anything. at least i have a space! thank god!
opps you’re! :)
Jorda….I live in the Skyline…directly across from you. I’ve never had a guest circle more than 3 minutes to find street parking. No joke. So, I know your area very well.
Jorda: I’m not trying to get negative here…it’s just, that as a resident of downtown LA, you’re not going to find “abundant and plentiful” parking like that of 1100 Wilshire or the suburbs. In true cities, parking is difficult and expensive to find. Yes, your friends/family will have to drive a bit, but that’s what life in a city is. There’s traffic and pains of parking. If we wanted free parking, we wouldn’t have street-facing retail with underground or no parking; we’d have strip malls like that of OC; and of course the no walkability factor. So, when I see a complaint of no free parking, yeah, that’s a city for you. But, like I said in the previous post, after 6 pm on weekdays, after 3 on Saturdays and all day Sundays, street parking is free and easy to come by. Just spend a couple of minutes searching, and don’t just look for it on Hope between 8th & 9th.
Lived in downtown Chicago, in the Lincoln Park area and we would have to circle for 30-90 minutes for a parking spot. If guests came over I would have them call me before they got there, walk outside to find a spot and then stand in it until they arrived.
LAofAnaheim: i just agreed with you and it’s truly not a debate i was just giving you my opinion about my particular situation. i never used the words “abundant and plentiful” so i hope you’re not quoting me just “reasonable” and i meant that in terms of the pricing. i’m not upset about a lack of free parking i’m upset because i was promised something that my building didn’t deliver on which is bummer and i think even you can agree with that, but if you can’t i’m sure you’ll let me know.
Parking in Downtown LA will always be an issue until 1) The City and DCBID can convince the owners of large parking structures to reduce their prices to levels akin to other popular shopping districts like Old Town Pasadena, which allows 90 minutes free and a maximum of $6 a day. And 2) the dead zones (aka surface parking lots, etc.) are filled in with aesthetically pleasing mixed-use projects with retail on the ground floor to activate pedestrian traffic.
Having a street lively with people walking will somewhat offset the inconvenience of having little-to-no parking. Look at DT Seattle. There is no subsidized parking and hardly any mass transit options. Parking in DT Seattle runs in the upper $20s! Not kidding. But the area is incredibly beautiful that it is still worth the headache to get “into the city.”
DTLA hasn’t reached that kind of status yet. It needs to get rid of the parking lots, develop a strong retail/shopping district, and get figure out how to ameliorate the homeless issue. For parking lots that are not developed into mixed-use projects, DTLA really needs to look to Pasadena for some answers. Many of the surface parking lots in Pasadena have beautiful flowers and other vegetation surrounding it so it doesn’t look like a blight to the area. DTLA’s parking lots look like sterile, deserts. VERY UNPLEASING TO LOOK AT OR WALK BY.
Little baby steps.
I have been liveing in Los Angeles for overe 28 years now. Ever since 1999 Loa Angeles has been the calling for out of Staters in fiending jobs homes and the chance to be discovered for some .well my point is that parking cus of the people i have just spoke about is a real big problem.we now have 3-parking space’s for every 7 car thats looking for parking whats that tell you ! we have more people then parking space.Soon we are going to be just like NewYork where parking is going to be Realestate.and yes running a parking lot is a very very! lucrative business for the ones owning or running the parking lots.well people thats just a hint for its time to move on to some other city where parking is 200,000 to every 5 cars i have a saying …Deal with it or pay the price !
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