Design Changes Approved For Press-Telegram Lofts

By Kurt Helin
Editor

Changes suggested earlier this year for the Press-Telegram Lofts project got their formal approval last week.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the changes late into its marathon meeting last Thursday. Those changes include having one larger tower instead of two thinner ones, reducing the amount of office and retail space, and reducing the amount of parking needed.

Even with the new design, the Press-Telegram Lofts will mean a dramatic change to the skyline, becoming the first 22-story residential building not along Ocean Boulevard.

Above the facades of the Press-Telegram building (at Sixth Street and Pine Avenue) and Meeker building (along Seventh Street) would rise a 22-story tower containing 542 loft-style condominiums. There will be retail and office space at street level.

Some key parts of the project remain unchanged. Unlike other recent downtown loft projects, this will not be high-end condos but rather “workforce” housing that would be more affordable to average working professionals, said Jim Brophy, principal in October Five Development, the builders. October Five Development plans to sell 60 of the units, at its cost, to the California State University, Long Beach, to help its efforts to find housing for professors and staff of the university.

Those workforce residents and professors will have a little less space — one of the approved changes by the Planning Commission was a reduction in the size of the average residential unit. The new number is about 100 square-feet smaller, at 797 for an average unit.

Other changes approved included adding one story on top of the historic Meeker building, making it five stories.

The changes were made in part due to changes in the economy and the housing market. They are changes to the original plan approved by both the Planning Commission and the City Council last year.

The Cultural Heritage Commission also has signed off on the project, even though there was considerable debate on that body about the project.

Brophy said that with the commission’s approval he and his team were looking forward to moving on to the next step in the process and getting the project built.