A low-slung commercial strip just north of Palms Boulevard is now a blank slate, with the site at 3418 S. Motor Avenue cleared for a new Wiseman Residential project. Current permit filings and project documents point to a seven-story building with roughly 250 apartments, ground-floor commercial space, and resident parking, along with a larger affordable-housing set-aside than what was first floated.
What city records show
On the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety portal, the plan check file for the site (B24LA00864) originally outlined a six-story, 200-unit project that would have included 22 extremely low-income units. The same file now carries a blunt note: "SEE SUPPLEMENTAL PERMITS FOR CHANGE TO 250 UNTS." The permit report lists the status as "Quality Review Completed" as of Feb. 9, 2024, and confirms that the building permit itself has not yet been issued, according to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. Additional supplemental documentation will have to be filed and approved before the enlarged proposal can move forward.
Site cleared and the designer named.
Urbanize LA reported on March 3 that the existing commercial building at 3418 S. Motor Avenue has already been demolished to make way for the new development. Earlier filings list Reed Architectural Group as the project's designer. Urbanize's update also highlights the jump in total units and a planned increase in the number of studio and one-bedroom apartments reserved for extremely low-income.
Part of Wiseman’s Motor Avenue push
If built as proposed, the project would become Wiseman Residential's third mixed-use development along the same Motor Avenue stretch, joining a 68-unit building at 3659 S. Motor and a 104-unit complex at 3557 S. Motor. The Real Deal reported in 2024 that Wiseman has been actively assembling parcels in Palms and targeting larger infill projects in the neighborhood.
Timeline and next steps
For now, the LADBS entry shows the application still in plan check, with supplemental permits required to match the expanded 250-unit concept. That means formal construction approvals are not in hand yet. Until those supplemental filings clear and a building permit is issued, there is no official schedule for when work will start or when the building might open, according to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.
What it could mean for Palms
If the larger version of the project gets built, it would add a sizable batch of new homes along a relatively short stretch of Motor Avenue, boosting housing supply near transit while also locking in deed-restricted units for extremely low-income renters. Current filings call for about 30 such affordable units. Local planners have leaned on transit-adjacent incentives to allow taller, denser buildings on this corridor, and the latest filings show Wiseman making use of those tools, as reported by The Real Deal.
