Santa Monica's next housing heavyweight is getting a visual reboot, with the proposed 353-unit Modera Santa Monica project emerging with updated renderings and a sharper plan for replacing an office complex near Water Garden. The new look arrived as the project went before the city's Architectural Review Board on Monday, putting one of the Bergamot area's largest private housing proposals back in the local spotlight.
A presentation to the board reveals an eight-story development from Mill Creek Residential Trust on land owned by Kilroy Realty. According to Urbanize LA, the project would demolish the existing office complex at 1633 26th Street and replace it with 353 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above a 468-car parking garage.
Eight Stories, 353 Apartments, And A Larger Garage
The proposal includes 317 market-rate apartments and 36 affordable homes, according to the City of Santa Monica's project determination. The filing describes an approximately 519,520-square-foot building rising about 85 feet, with parking arranged across three above-ground levels.
The affordable apartments would serve moderate-, low-, and very low-income renters, helping the project qualify for state density-bonus incentives. The application seeks to raise the floor-area ratio from 4.0 to 5.92 and requests concessions or waivers tied to the building footprint, façade length, height, roofline, bicycle parking, and outdoor-living requirements. Those requests are part of the proposal, not a guarantee that every requested exception will survive the city's review.
AC Martin remains the project's architect, while Landmarc is handling the landscape design. The updated concept keeps a contemporary podium-style approach with two central courtyards, a design shift that gives the project a more finished identity than the earlier plans, as Urbanize LA reported.
A Much Larger Housing Wave Is Forming Around Water Garden
Modera Santa Monica would land in a corridor already seeing multiple large housing proposals. Hoodline previously reported that the neighboring 1655 26th Street project could add 401 apartments, including 41 deed-restricted units, while the City of Santa Monica's Bergamot notice calls for at least 707 affordable residences at the city-owned arts center site.
The city also lists a May 4 notice of exemption for the 1633 26th Street residential project on its environmental review page. That filing moves the project through one part of the approval process, but the development remains proposed and still faces design and entitlement steps before construction could begin.
For now, the biggest change is visible only on paper: an office property near the E Line is being recast as a sizable new apartment community with a meaningful, if limited, affordable-housing component. In a part of Santa Monica where new homes, parking, transit access, and neighborhood scale are all colliding at once, the renderings are likely to be only the opening round.
