Development would add dense housing atop existing retail, hotel and office project

A rendering of the proposed 53-level residential tower at The Bloc in Downtown Los Angeles (National Real Estate Advisors)

By Brannon Boswell

CoStar News

April 17, 2025 | 12:46 P.M.

A high-rise residential tower is moving forward in the heart of Los Angeles as fewer multifamily projects are breaking ground to meet the city’s urgent need for new housing.

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission this week approved key permit changes needed for a 53-story, 466-unit residential tower to rise at The Bloc, a mixed-use complex at 700 S. Flower St. The approval clears the way for the project to go before the City Council for a final vote.

The tower would rise atop The Bloc’s existing parking garage and feature a sculpted glass roof, a pool deck, a fitness center and a lawn for residents. It’s designed by Handel Architects and backed by National Real Estate Advisors, which redeveloped The Bloc in 2015 after acquiring the property on behalf of its parent, an electrical workers union pension fund. The developer is still determining the pricing of the residential units and whether they will be rentals or sold as condominium units.

“The economy has changed drastically since we started this application, and what penciled a few years ago doesn’t pencil any longer,” Daniel Cote, general manager of The Bloc, told the commission at the meeting. “We’re not comfortable putting a number out there because there’s been so much dynamic change.”

The developer is aiming for a 2027 construction start and a 2030 delivery, but the exact structure will depend on market conditions as financing and demand evolve.

The commission offered little resistance to the proposal, praising its transit connectivity, architectural ambition and potential to anchor The Bloc as a more comprehensive live-work-play destination as downtown Los Angeles seeks reinvention.

Los Angeles is grappling with both a housing shortage and a slowdown in new development. CoStar data shows the number of multifamily units under construction has declined 22% year over year, pushing the city’s multifamily vacancy rate down to 5%, with tenants renting 10,000 more units than they vacated over the past year.

As part of the redevelopment, 24,000 square feet of retail and theater space at the center of The Bloc will be removed to make way for the tower’s lobby. That displaced square footage will be relocated to the Hope Street side of the project, Cote said.

The Bloc’s Macy’s anchor recently closed, but a new experiential retail concept has signed on to occupy space elsewhere on the site. The property still includes a Sheraton hotel, 700,000 square feet of office space and roughly 400,000 square feet of active retail.

The project is the latest mixed-use residential concept to be approved by city planners. In December the commission OK'd Vella Group's long-planned 670 Mesquit project, a $1.4 billion effort to turn a former cold storage facility in downtown's Arts District into a complex with housing, offices and stores.