Australian residential developer Crown Group has secured land for its entry into the U.S. market, where it plans to develop a mixed-use high-rise condominium and hotel tower in downtown Los Angeles.
Crown Group is progressing entitlements with Los Angeles City Hall for the proposed tower, which is earmarked for the southeast corner of South Hill and 11th streets at the convergence of the financial, fashion and South Park districts. Crown Group has formed a joint venture with Singapore-based Magnus Property Pte Ltd and one of Indonesia’s biggest property developers, ASRI, the premium lifestyle brands division of Agung Sedayu Group. Some of ASRI’s most notable developments include The Langham Jakarta (the first in Southeast Asia), The Langham Residences (the first Langham-branded residence in the world). The joint venture group settled on the Downtown site in November 2019.
The 43-story tower has an inspirational design by Koichi Takada Architects. It will embody Crown Group’s philosophy of melding inspired architecture with a futuristic vision of a new way of living. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
The high-rise sections of the building will comprise 319 condominiums with an exclusive residents’ retreat over the top two floors and a façade design that references California’s gigantic ancient redwood trees. A dramatic street canopy will ground the tower and incorporate a “breathing green wall” designed to improve the city’s air quality and introduce a unique landscaping feature to the streetscape.
Crown Group’s L.A. office is in discussions with several luxury hotel brands to incorporate a 160-key hotel in the low rise of the building.
Crown Group CEO Iwan Sunito said the flourishing Downtown district of L.A. had experienced a significant transformation over the past decade.
“It’s rare to find the central district of a large cosmopolitan city on the verge of such significant change,” he said. “Downtown is experiencing a once in a generation revival—led by the heightened convergence of tech, media and entertainment in Los Angeles. There’s a great deal of investment and it’s exciting to think of what Downtown will be like in another few years’ time. It will be a highly sought-after place to live.”
Established in Sydney in 1996, Crown Group is known for luxury developments and today has a $5 billion pipeline spanning five cities and two continents.
Crown Group and Koichi Takada Architects are behind a series of major residential apartment projects in Australia including a condominium and hotel tower called Arc by Crown Group in Sydney, which has won numerous international awards.
Koichi Takada, principal, Koichi Takada Architects, said the new development would seek to incorporate a sense of greenery and of “human scale.”
“It is our desire, through a nature-inspired approach to architecture, to transform an old warehouse district into a living breathing neighbourhood in L.A.,” he said. “We want to humanize tall buildings, to celebrate the pedestrian activities and consider how people experience it. We want our tall building designs to be more engaging for the public, and to contribute to the community by activating and creating a connection with the neighbourhood.”