Planning Commission approves plans to convert Union Bank building into housing
The adaptive reuse of the former Union Bank building in Downtown Long Beach is part of a proposed 275-unit development at the site.
Plans to convert the former Union Bank building in Downtown Long Beach into a residential tower that will be part of a 275-unit development were approved by the Planning Commission Thursday evening.
The building, located at 400 Oceangate at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Golden Shore near the entrance to the 710 Freeway, has served as a home for law firms and other businesses over the years but was sold earlier this year.
The plans approved by the commission Thursday would see the 15-story building converted into a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
The project could satisfy two needs for the city by taking underutilized office space, an issue that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and persists in Downtown, and converting it into housing. Long Beach has been tasked with creating room for over 26,500 units by 2029 by the Southern California Association of Governments, a joint powers authority that periodically determines how much housing is needed among its member cities.
Over 11,000 of those units are supposed to be for lower-income households, according to the most recent housing goals.
In addition to converting the former office space into living units, the plans call for building five stories of new construction atop the parking structure that sits to the south of the Union Bank building.
The structure currently has 336 spaces and the plans call for a minimum of 275 spaces, which would provide one space per unit. But the total number of parking spaces could be higher depending on what kind of engineering the structure might need to support the five stories of new housing.
The project is expected to be entirely market rate, something that commissioners questioned Thursday night. While Long Beach has an ordinance on the books that requires some parts of the city to include affordable units in new housing projects, the Union Bank building sits outside of the applicable zone.
Community Development Director Christopher Koontz told the commission that while the department does have tools that it can use to encourage developers to include affordable units when they’re not required, things like a density bonus were not needed for this project so the department’s negotiation position wasn’t strong.
However, Koontz said that his team did successfully ensure that the new units that will be built are livable and will come with amenities like built-in storage to maximize the smaller floor spaces that will exist in the tower and usable windows, something the building currently lacks.
Long Beach is in the process of expanding its mandate citywide for new developments to include affordable units and the City Council is expected to vote on the new policy before the end of the year. However, any new projects that are approved before then would not be subject to the law if they’re outside the Downtown and Midtown areas where the policy is currently in effect.
The proposed project is in the Gold Shore Master Plan area that includes a few blocks at the western end of Downtown. The plan was adopted in 2010 and envisioned a few different scenarios for how the blocks would be redeveloped in the future.
The residential option in the plan called for up to 1,370 units to be built in the area but the plan did not envision an adaptive reuse of any of the buildings. The Union Bank building was built in 1975. The savings on materials, labor and interest rate hikes have increased interest in the adaptive reuse of buildings, according to the city.
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