Brentwood-based Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. is likely to enter exclusive negotiations with Los Angeles for the purchase and redevelopment of a series of properties along Marlton Square in South Los Angeles.
The decision is contingent upon the L.A. City Council rubber-stamping the request from the Economic and Workforce Development Department, which in November formally asked permission to move forward with Hudson Pacific. The agreement would pave way for the developer to acquire 5.7 acres of land owned both by the city and the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, on which Hudson Pacific plans to construct a two-building mixed-use center.
In a statement, Hudson Pacific acknowledged the negotiations and noted the initiative was part of the company’s EquiBlue impact investing platform, which was formed to identify “transformative and highly amenitized office space” in West Coast urban centers with direct benefits to under-resourced communities. The company declined further comment.
Hudson Pacific is proposing two five-story office buildings with a total of 300,000 square feet; a 19,000-square-foot grocery store; a 10,000-square-foot food incubator; and an urban farm operated by Leimert Park-based Crop Swap LA. The grocery store, actress Tiffany Haddish’s Diaspora Grocer enterprise, will sell organic food sourced in part from the urban farm. The incubator, operated by View Park-Windsor Hills food and beverage company Hilltop Kitchen + Coffee, will offer job training and business development for South L.A. entrepreneurs.
This development would join a new 100,000-square-foot Kaiser Permanente medical facility and two senior housing buildings in the Marlton Square block in Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw.
In its proposal, Hudson Pacific offered to purchase the city-owned lots for $13 million and the CRA/LA-owned lots for a to-be-determined price.
Marlton Square would be Hudson Pacific’s first South L.A. redevelopment project. Its portfolio also includes One Westside in West L.A., which was leased entirely to Google; Fourth & Traction, a creative office space in the Arts District; and Element LA in West L.A., which is now the campus for Riot Games.
South LA Studios, Harridge Development Group and NVision Development Group also submitted proposals. Harridge Development, which in August 2021 purchased the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza for redevelopment, unsuccessfully appealed its rejection.
