A surface parking lot on 5th Street in Santa Monica is on track to become an eight-story apartment building with 110 market-rate units, according to fresh renderings and a staff report tied to the project. The proposal includes a three-level subterranean parking garage and a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments on the west side of 5th Street, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard.
The plans, detailed by Urbanize LA, come from developer Tishman Speyer, which is pursuing the project using density bonus incentives. That approach means no affordable units are planned on-site at 1338 5th Street itself. Instead, the 12 affordable units required for the project will be built off-site at 1323 5th Street, part of a broader move by the developer to consolidate affordable-housing obligations from multiple developments into a single standalone building down the block.
A Scaled-Up Redesign From an Earlier Micro-Unit Plan
The current 110-unit proposal is a departure from an earlier approved plan for the same site, which called for a 120-unit building made up primarily of single-occupancy micro-apartments, according to the Santa Monica Mirror. The shift toward fewer, presumably larger units marks a notable reworking of what the parking lot site was originally slated to hold.
Ottinger Architects is designing the building as a contemporary podium-type structure. Per the project's staff report, the design concept centers on U-shaped massing with accentuated corners, along with a grid and projecting balconies meant to define the building's architectural order.
Part of a Larger Eight-Property Portfolio
The 1338 5th Street site was one of eight entitled Santa Monica development properties Tishman Speyer acquired from WS Communities in 2021. The developer has already completed four of those eight projects and is now working through entitlement or permitting stages for the rest of the portfolio, per the same Urbanize LA account.
Among the other properties in that pipeline is a separate Tishman Speyer project at 1325 6th Street, planned as another eight-story building with 110 apartments above 95 basement parking stalls, the station's report notes. The 1323 5th Street site slated to absorb the off-site affordable units, meanwhile, is itself planned as a five-story, fully affordable development with 35 residential units.
