Construction crews have officially begun digging the foundation for the Alexan West End—and as a result, this officially kicks off the beginning of work on the largest residential development proposed for Long Beach.
They are working on the project’s easternmost podium buildings—also called “five-over-one” buildings—where a cement foundation serves as the base for the wooden frames above it, a popular design choice for low-rise, fairly low density apartment complexes. Meanwhile, the proposed 30-story tower is in a state of flux with future funding needed.
Finally: Why did this project take so long to get going?
The project was entitled years ago bso people often wonder why it took so long to finally break ground. And the answer is usually, almost always money.
The owners of the massive parking lot behind the World Trade Center in Downtown are Trammell Crow Residential, owned by Crow Holdings. They scored $200M in key capital funding, according to The Real Deal, back in March, finally kicking off the formal construction process. After a failed attempt to break ground last year, that money guaranteed the project broke ground this year, with potential initial occupancies taking place in May of 2026.
So what is the Alexan West End project in Downtown Long Beach?
In a neighborhood that historically was low-level, the World Trade Center—seen in the image above as the small blue and bronze building—altered that entirely during its construction in the late 1980s, a note from Studio One Eleven, who led the design of the Alexan West End development. That then spurred larger high-rise construction along Ocean Boulevard, bringing in everything from the Aqua towers to the Shoreline Gateway, what is currently the tallest building in the city.
Alexan West End will extend that reach for height: While initial proposals for the project’s tallest building put it at 40 stories in 2018—and would have made it the city’s tallest building, surpassing Shoreline Gateway—Trammel altered its plans in April of 2022. It also nixed a proposed 21-story tower attached to the project.
The project’s residential units have also dramatically dropped from 756 units to 600 as a result of the aforementioned money issue.
As a result of this downsizing, the tallest building will stand 30 stories tall and joins five other buildings. Those five buildings will stand seven or eight stories, mimicking, for instance, the plethora of podium buildings in the downtown. This is, of course, minus the nine-story parking garage housing 1,500 parking stalls. (Yes, 1,500 parking stalls and, as a result, being the city’s largest parking garage. This is something some might cheer or, well, absolutely jeer.)
Delays in the project moved groundbreaking from 2023 to this year
The project spands across a 5.6-acre surface parking lot purchased by Trammel in September of 2022 for $29.5M north of the Hilton Long Beach and World Trade Center in Downtown. Construction on the long-planned development was supposed to kick off in 2023 and was pushed to this year.
The $200M securing, which consists of a $166 million construction loan from Kennedy Wilson and a $34 million mezzanine loan from an unnamed life insurance company, “allows the developer to get out of the ground when few other projects will and deliver much-needed housing to Long Beach,” according to Scott Peterson of CBRE Capital Markets.
Alexan West End will offer a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans, averaging 767 square feet with “initial occupancy by May 2026 and a final completion planned for March 2027,” Peterson noted. After that, we can expect to see human residential activity in ways we only previously dreamed of in that part of DTLB.
What amenities will there be at the Alexan West End?
In addition to the outdoor aesthetics, the amenities are expansive per their proposal to the City of Long Beach:
- Club lounges with a gourmet kitchen, billiard table, poker room, banquette seating, lounge and dining areas and flat screen TVs;
- Coffee bar lounge with banquette seating;
- Indoor-outdoor fitness studio with an adjoining kids’ entertainment suite and a separate studio for yoga, TRX, and spin with on-demand fitness programming;
- Business center with flat-screen TVs, presentation-ready work areas, a large conference room, communal tables and a lounge area;
- Pool lounge with a coffee bar, kitchenette, games, and seating;
- Pet spa and grooming station;
- Mail center, including Amazon parcel lockers with 24-hour resident access;
- Wi-Fi in all common areas;
- Bike station and storage room;
- Pool and spa deck with an outdoor kitchen, fireplaces, gaming, and daybeds;
- Multiple courtyards with community gardens, fire features, barbecue grills, and game areas;
- Sky deck and room with a fire pit, trellis structure, and seating
And how will the Alexan West End look from other angles?
Glad you asked: check out these other renderings from Studio One Eleven on how the Alexan West End—sitting on the southside of Broadway in Downtown Long Beach between World Trade Center and Golden Shore.
This article originally appeared on March 27, 2024; therefore, given new information, it has been updated.
The Alexan West End will be locate at 600 W. Broadway in Downtown Long Beach.
Editor’s Note: This article mistakenly reported this project was headed by The Trammel Crow Company; it has been corrected to reflect its proper developer and owner, Trammell Crow Residential.
Sssoooo many thoughts on this!
When will corporate housing stop? Make them smaller, easily managed properties that are under one management company but has on-site managers at each property.
When things get big, a lot is easy to overlook. As someone who lives in corporate housing and dealing with a laundry list of troubles, I speak from experience.
I want everyone housed. I want all projects to succeed. Everything crossed that this will be a success.
Where is the affordable housing? Building this type of housing doesn’t help the people of Long Beach in the area of more affordable housing, it brings in people outside of Long Beach. Which compound the problem. We are not adding more housing when we only luxury housing.