A vacant 1.037-acre lot on Marine Avenue in Gardena could soon hold a five-story building packed with 152 one-bedroom apartments, each averaging just 450 square feet, under a new proposal from West Realty Group. The plan also calls for a separate automated parking structure on the neighboring parcel, built to stack 148 vehicles across five tiers.
City of Gardena planning records describe the project at 2315 Marine Avenue as a 54-foot-8-inch-tall building totaling 110,064 square feet, and the Planning and Environmental Quality Commission considered the application at a meeting on Tuesday, according to a City of Gardena planning listing. The automated garage itself would span 7,014 square feet and add seven more ground-level spaces beyond its mechanical capacity, per the same city filing. West Realty Group submitted the application, and planning documents list Raj Govindan, acting through the entity Marine Avenue Investments, LLC, as the property owner, according to Urbanize LA.
Density Bonus Sought for Below-Market Units
West Realty Group is requesting density bonuses and concessions tied to setting aside 15% of the units for very low-income renters and another 15% for moderate-income renters, the city's planning filing states. In practice, that works out to 24 of the 152 apartments being reserved for very low- and moderate-income tenants, Urbanize LA reports. An Affordable Housing Agreement tied to the project would lock in that affordability for 12 very low-income units and 12 moderate-income units for 55 years, according to the city listing.
The city's planning page also notes the project is being considered for an exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to Assembly Bill 130, though the available filings do not indicate whether that exemption has actually been granted. The density bonus incentives being sought would exempt the project from certain development standards, per The Real Deal, which published its report on November 13, 2026, after Urbanize LA's November 12, 2026, report.
Courtyards and Rooftop Decks Planned by DE Architects
DE Architects designed the multifamily property, which is planned to include a central courtyard, multiple rooftop decks, and recreation rooms, Urbanize LA reports. The design approach echoes a pattern West Realty Group has pursued elsewhere in Gardena: small, efficiently sized apartments paired with automated parking structures to maximize unit count on compact lots, the outlet notes.
That pattern shows up most directly in a separate project from West Realty Group affiliate Cocoon, which is moving forward with a four-story, 121-apartment SRO building at 13126 South Western Avenue, also in Gardena, with parking for 120 vehicles, according to The Real Deal's earlier reporting. Those apartments are planned at 350 square feet each with a kitchen and bathroom, the outlet reported. Cocoon has already built two smaller SRO developments in the city — a 63-unit studio building at 16819 South Normandie Avenue that opened in 2022, and a 20-unit project at 13919 South Normandie Avenue, per the same source.
Fewer Apartments Are Getting Built Across Los Angeles
The Marine Avenue proposal arrives as multifamily construction across greater Los Angeles has been slowing even as regional housing demand keeps climbing. Deliveries totaled 4,136 units in the third quarter of 2026 and 10,643 units year to date, down 18.4% from the 13,038 units delivered over the same stretch in 2025, according to a market report from Kidder Mathews.
The pipeline of future supply is thinning too: the region had 24,325 multifamily units under construction in the third quarter, down from 26,064 the prior quarter and an 11% drop from the 27,324 units under construction during the same period last year, per the same Kidder Mathews report. Average asking rents in the Los Angeles multifamily market stood at $2,323 per unit per month in the third quarter, up a modest 0.6% year over year, the firm's data shows.
