SunCal Plans $2B LA Mixed-Use Project

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

This artist’s rendering depicts SunCal’s proposed 6AM mixed-use development in the Los Angeles Arts District. The City’s downtown skyline appears in the background. (PRNewsFoto/SunCal)

Los Angeles—Downtown Los Angeles’s blossoming Arts District is about to get one show-stopper of a piece. SunCal has announced plans for 6AM, a 15-acre mixed-use project with a development cost of, according to Los Angeles Downtown News, a whopping $2 billion.

6AM will sprout up on an urban infill site SunCal acquired from Lowe Enterprises in March 2015, and like the project, the land cost a pretty penny. The real estate developer paid $130 million for the former industrial property, once home to a produce center. The site would be like catnip to many an investor, as it’s the largest remaining parcel in the neighborhood. But size isn’t all that matters.

“We envision a multi-faceted, arts-inspired development that respects and builds on the area’s cultural atmosphere, responds to the preferences of the community and includes some beneficial features that residents and visitors can enjoy,” Stephan Elieff, president of SunCal, said in a prepared statement.

SunCal brought aboard Basel, Switzerland-based architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron to design 6AM, which will be a live/work/play destination in every sense of the term.  The “skyline” segment of the development will consist of two 58-story residential towers. According to Downtown News, the residential component will consist of more than 1,700 apartments and condominiums, including live/work spaces. That’s just for starters. 6AM will also feature approximately 250,000 square feet of creative office space; a 250,000-square-foot hotel; 64,000 square feet of retail offerings; and an 18,000-square-foot school. And since the project will sprout up in what is evolving into one of the liveliest arts communities in the country, 6AM will encompass 18,000 square feet designated for cultural uses, providing ample space to accommodate art galleries and the like. The development will, of course, also be green; it’s being designed to qualify for LEED Silver certification.

60AM will fit right in. “Although there are areas named the Arts District and the Financial District, arts and finance are not confined to one or the other, but are feeding off of each other to infuse both areas with creative office‑space projects and innovative residential units,” per a report by global advisory services firm EY. “New, mixed‑use development is helping tourists, residents and workers embody the Downtown Center Business Improvement District tagline of ‘Live, Work & Play.’”