Costco is building dozens of affordable housing units above its newest store to get around Los Angeles’ building restrictions.
The off-price grocer is planning a 185,000-square-foot store in South Los Angeles, at 5035 Coliseum Street, on a vacant five-acre site that used to be a hospital.
However, building a massive store in Los Angeles required jumping numerous regulatory hurdles that would leave it stuck in red tape for years.
Costco could spend millions on store design and development and millions more on consultants to comply with regulations, and still fail.
Costco is planning a 185,000-square-foot store in South Los Angeles at 5035 Coliseum Street
Most units range from 350-square-foot studios to 605-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments.
Instead, it used a rule that mixed-use housing developments with certain attributes are exempt from some of the rules.
To do this, the development had to be two-thirds housing and Costco went further with 471,000 square feet of housing.
The housing will include 800 apartments, of which 183 are reserved for low-income affordable housing. The project is being developed by Thrive Living.
On top of that, there were another 56,000 square feet of amenities that included a fitness center, a multi-use community space, patios, a rooftop pool and gardens.
Costco also needed to use union labor in the construction of its facilities, and to reduce labor costs as much as possible it used prefabricated units.
The development will include 800 apartments, of which 183 are reserved for affordable housing for low-income people.
The result is a layout that resembles a prison or college dormitory in its design, with many hallways filled with small units.
Those units are built elsewhere by cheaper workers and transported by truck, meaning most of them had to be small one-bedroom apartments.
The result is a layout that resembles a prison or college dormitory in its design, with many hallways filled with small units.
Most units range from 350-square-foot studios to 605-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments.
California is battling a housing crisis with 181,000 homeless people and an average rent price of $2,800 a month.
The store will be built on a five-acre vacant lot that used to be a hospital.
