Approved Office Project in Playa Vista Returns Requiring Further Environmental Review

Today, the City of Los Angeles announced it will prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for an eight-story, 199,500 square-foot (SF) mixed-use office/commercial development located in Playa Vista.

The New Beatrice West Project, proposed by NSB Associates, would be located on a 4.51-acre site encompassing multiple addresses from 5454 South Jandy Place to 12541 West Beatrice Street. The site is currently occupied by two office buildings and two accessory buildings. All but one of the office buildings would be removed to make way for the new project.

The new eight-story building, designed by Gehry Partners, would consist of 196,100 SF of office space and 3,400 SF of ground-floor commercial space. The project would provide 811 parking spaces in total, all but 20 of which would be located in a part-subterranean, part-above grade five-level parking structure.

The project would include landscaped walkways and courtyards to connect the new building with the existing office building to facilitate an integrated creative office campus. A total of 38,033 SF of open space would be provided on the campus. Each of the project’s buildings would have landscaped terraces on the upper levels.

The project was previously considered and approved by the City of Los Angeles in 2017. However, two lawsuits were filed challenging the City’s approvals of the Project, on the grounds, among others, that the City’s mitigated negative declaration was inadequate under CEQA. The Honorable John A. Torribio of the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that the mitigated negative declaration was inadequate as to aesthetics, noise, and traffic. On January 21, 2020, the court entered a judgment vacating the City’s approval of the mitigated negative declaration and requiring that an environmental impact report (EIR) be prepared for the project.

If the EIR is approved by the City of Los Angeles, the project construction is expected to occur over an 18-month period and be completed by 2024.