A hotel project that has sat stalled for years just south of Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown is being scrapped in favor of affordable housing. A Jamison-affiliated entity has proposed a seven-story, 114-unit apartment complex at 679 S. Harvard Boulevard, targeting low- and moderate-income renters with a mix of one- and two-bedroom units and no on-site parking.
According to Urbanize LA, the Jamison-affiliated entity filed an application with the Department of City Planning earlier in October, and the case file does not yet include uploaded plans. The outlet reports that Jamison Services appears to be pulling the plug on the hotel project it had previously entitled for the site, opting instead to re-entitle it as income-restricted housing. Jamison plans to lean on streamlined approvals and development bonuses through the city's Citywide Housing Incentive Program to move the project forward, the report notes.
From Hotel Rooms to Apartment Units
The site's history as a hotel project goes back years. The prior plan, as the same outlet previously reported, had been permitted for a seven-story building with 110 guest rooms above 1,840 square feet of ground-floor retail space and parking for 80 vehicles. Jamison Services acquired the land for $5.25 million in 2018, according to the earlier Urbanize LA account of the project's approval.
Jamison's broader footprint in the immediate area includes the 209-unit Luna on Wilshire apartments to the north and a proposed two-tower complex on the opposite side of Harvard Boulevard, per the same outlet's reporting on the original hotel approval. The shift at 679 S. Harvard mirrors a pattern playing out elsewhere in Jamison's portfolio, where market-rate approvals are being swapped for affordable designations.
A Company-Wide Pivot Toward Affordable Housing
Jamison has launched an affordable-housing affiliate called Arden Residential, the Urbanize LA report states, and the developer is working on its first projects consisting entirely of affordable units, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. Arden is partnering with Kennedy Wilson on projects expected to generate roughly 4,000 homes in the Los Angeles area, per Urbanize LA's reporting — though the Business Journal separately describes the same partnership as targeting more than 4,000 units built through ground-up construction and office-to-residential conversions. The two figures come from different outlets, and neither is presented here as more definitive than the other.
That partnership's first project is the conversion of the former Los Angeles World Trade Center into 512 affordable apartments rebranded as Sky Castle, according to Multifamily Dive. The Business Journal reports the conversion is unfolding in two phases, with 241 units in Phase I and 271 in Phase II. Multifamily Dive also notes that the broader pipeline for office-to-apartment conversions increased 28% year over year at the start of 2026, a trend the Harvard Boulevard flip fits squarely within.
Similar Moves Across Jamison's Koreatown Holdings
The Harvard Boulevard proposal is not an isolated case. An affiliate of Jamison Services filed plans for a 54,430-square-foot, seven-story, 100-percent affordable housing development at 1025 Crenshaw Boulevard in Mid-Wilshire, according to The Real Deal. That project is planned to contain 70 apartments — 55 low-income and 14 moderate-income units — over a two-level parking structure, with an estimated construction valuation of $8 million, per the same outlet.
Jamison has also revised plans at 975 S. Manhattan Place in Koreatown, just blocks from the Harvard Boulevard site. The developer secured approvals in 2023 for a seven-story, 120-unit apartment building with 127 parking spaces, Urbanize LA reported at the time. A revised application now calls for a 147-unit income-restricted complex for low- and moderate-income renters, trimming the parking count to 99 spaces.
Why the Shift Makes Sense Now
Los Angeles needs roughly 450,000 new housing units by 2029 to meet state-mandated targets, according to the Business Journal's reporting, a backdrop that helps explain why developers are increasingly steering stalled market-rate and hospitality projects toward affordable designations. The city's Citywide Housing Incentive Program, which Jamison intends to use for the Harvard Boulevard project, offers three local density-bonus paths — the State Density Bonus Program, the Affordable Housing Incentive Program and the Mixed Income Incentive Program — according to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.
No uploaded plans currently accompany the city's case file for 679 S. Harvard Boulevard, and key details — including unit-by-unit affordability breakdowns, a construction timeline or confirmation that the hotel entitlement has been formally withdrawn — remain unclear based on available reporting. For now, the project stands as the latest example of a once-stalled Koreatown site getting a second life as income-restricted housing.
