NREA Plans To Add 41-Story Residential Tower To This DTLA Parking Garage
When National Real Estate Advisors bought The Ratkovich Co.’s stake in The Bloc in 2018, NREA President Jeffrey Kanne told the Los Angeles Times that they were planning to add a residential tower — “maybe 40 stories,” he said — at some point in the future. That time has come.
Washington, D.C.-based NREA filed plans with the city of LA on Tuesday to build a 53-story tower with 466 residential units at the retail center at Seventh and Flower streets in Downtown LA. The Real Deal was the first to report the filing.
The Bloc now has a nearly 500-room Sheraton Grand hotel, an office tower, a nine-story parking podium and retail shops. As part of the proposed project, that parking podium would be enclosed, two new levels of parking would be added to it, and a 41-story residential tower would be added on top of that, documents filed with the Department of City Planning show. Including another story added from the existing parking structure, the completed new project would rise 53 stories. A representative for NREA declined to comment on the plans.
The Bloc is no stranger to dramatic reboots.
In 2015, the formerly enclosed shopping center had its roof ripped off as part of a years-long, Ratkovich-led renovation to update the once-fortress-like retail hub into a more welcoming and pedestrian-friendly spot. A direct portal to the Seventh Street/Metro Center subway station beneath The Bloc, the addition of new tenants including the Alamo Drafthouse, and a stylish revamp of the Sheraton already in the complex followed. The project took longer than expected and was at one point at least a year and a half behind on construction, the LA Times reported.
Other retail centers in the LA area are exploring residential additions. In September, Urbanize reported that Brookfield filed plans with the city to add 350 residential units to the Northridge Fashion Center, though that project was only expected to be five stories tall.
