Development moves forward with city notice, public comment
Finally, the 42-story Mirabel project is gaining some momentum.
It’s been nine years since Wally Marks first brought to the Miracle Mile his vision for the skyscraper proposed at 5411 Wilshire Blvd.
The City Planning Dept. released a Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the 348-unit development last month.
The NOP is the initial step in the lengthy city process that starts the ball rolling on the Draft Environmental Impact Report process, Marks told us in a phone interview last month.
THE 42-STORY MIRABEL will include 348 residential units and 12,821 square feet of ground floor commerical space. The façade of the historic Sontag Drug Store building will be preserved.
Public comment on the project is open through Mon., Oct 2. Mail comments directly to Jason McCrea, City of Los Angeles, Dept. of City Planning, 221 N. Figueroa St., Room 1350, Los Angeles, Calif. 90012, or email jason.mccrea@lacity.org.
The four-page study, released Aug. 31, provides the public, nearby residents, property owners and others with information on the project and its potential environmental effects.
The project, at 5401-5425 Wilshire Blvd., will include 29 units set aside for very low-income households, 12,821 square feet of ground floor commercial space and 475 parking spaces.
Marks has designed the $500 million project with the nearby subway stations — now completing construction under La Brea and Fairfax avenues — in mind. Many younger people today don’t want to own a car, he notes.
“I’m hopefully going to be able to come up with ideas that incite a dazzling urbanite to rent my cars or use the bus,” he said.
He plans to have car rentals on the site for tenants as well as an automated, three-level, underground garage modeled after one at his Helms Bakery property on Venice Boulevard.
And the location can’t be beat, he says.
Besides walking to nearby museums, tenants will be able “to get to Koreatown and the Broad and the Hammer all without traffic. It’s great to be in the middle of the city.”
He also praises the Keating Architecture tower design, which features a glass exterior with a curvilinear form and a rooftop deck and common open space above a parking podium.
The façade of the historic 1936 Streamline Moderne Sontag Drug Store building at the corner of Wilshire and Cloverdale Avenue will be preserved.
Marks expects the city to release the Draft Environmental Impact Report this coming spring, with community hearings to follow. If the Final EIR is approved by the city in 2025, the Mirabel could open in 2028 — in time for the city’s Summer Olympics, Marks says.
His Miracle Mile roots go way back. His grandfather was the broker who convinced May Co. department store officials to open a store on Wilshire Blvd. back in 1939. “They wanted to go to Hollywood, but he said Wilshire will be a big street.”
KEATING ARCHITECTURE designed a tower that features a glass exterior with a curvilinear form and a rooftop deck and common open space above a parking podium.
And indeed it was, with several other department stores to follow. It was, after all, the Miracle Mile. It’s had its ups and downs since those early days, Marks notes.
But he’s optimistic about the future.
“I think this is going to be a wonderful place to live.”
Category: Real Estate