After recently receiving City approval, new housing options will soon be constructed at an already existing mixed-use community in Alhambra. Expected to be complete by 2030, The Villages at The Alhambra will feature 775 residential units as well as various community amenities.
According to plans submitted to the city of Alhambra, the project, at 1000 South Fremont Avenue, is a redevelopment of a 20.61-acre portion of the already existing 40-acre community. The project will demolish approximately 104,242 square feet of office, industrial and storage buildings to make way for 230 for-sale condominiums and 545 rental apartment units. Of the 545 rental units, 75 will be set aside as affordable housing.
According to the Ratkovich Company, which is developing the project, the community will have a strong focus on health and wellness, with several amenities already onsite. These include walking loops, a full-service gym and a nine-hole putting green. In total, the community will offer 16 acres of open space, which will be available to all Alhambra residents.
“In the years ahead, a new, sensitively designed neighborhood envisioned as The Villages at The Alhambra will create an idyllic urban environment that will enhance and complete the live/work community,” the Ratkovich Company stated on its website.
Construction will be done in three phases over ten years through 2030. Phase one will last two years and bring about the completion of a 490-stall parking garage. Three five-story apartment buildings will be completed over the next four years during the second phase, and the construction of townhomes and condominiums will take place over the next four years.
Currently, The Alhambra is home to various tenants. These include the USC Keck School of Medicine and several County of Los Angeles departments. With approximately 40 tenants in total, The Alhambra is also home to a 100,000 square-foot Kohl’s Department Store, a 50,000-square-foot L.A. Fitness and 17,000 square feet of retail shops, including Starbucks and Subway, among others.
“We have successfully renovated 900,000 square feet of offices and The Alhambra is now home to 4,000 jobs and workers,” the Ratkovich Company said on its website.
While the current project calls for 775 residential units, the initial project plans called for a total of 1,016 residential units. The project size was reduced by the City of Alhambra Planning Commission to 839 units. In February, it was reduced to the current project size by a city council subcommittee.
Despite the reduction in size, the project will bring much needed housing to the city of Alhambra, the Ratkovich Company states on its website. According to the company, Alhambra is required by law to plan to build 6,808 new housing units by 2029 at all levels of income, which the new housing project will help to accomplish.
“What remains to be added to our Mixed-Use project is a place to live at The Alhambra. We are proposing that our parking lots and storage buildings be replaced with housing that is affordable to current and future Alhambra residents. We are proposing a combination of rental and ownership housing at a time when we live with a severe housing crisis and an unbelievable median home price in Los Angeles County of $715,000,” Wayne Ratkovich, founder of The Ratkovich Company, stated in a letter to the Alhambra City Council.
