Mateo and Palmetto

The Downtown Art District retail will start to pick up steam. Currently, the Art District has 3 hot restaurants (Bestia, Factory Kitchen, and Church and State) ;an Urth Cafe; and four coffee houses (Slumptown, Handsome, Verve, Novel, and Daily Dose). Now two projects will add 165,000 square feet of new retail.

A corner property where Mateo and Palmetto streets meet, now occupied by five warehouses, is about to be transformed into a huge, $30-million shopping center (with parking!), says the Downtown News. The 125,000-square-foot “urban retail center” will be an open-air mall “anchored by a major retailer” (as yet unnamed) and have a grocery store, according to a release from ASB Real Estate Investments, which is partnering with Century City-based Blatteis & Schnur on the development. No renderings have been released yet, but developers have said that they’re hoping to keep the center in line with the AD’s “unique place in Los Angeles” and that they’ve planned ” [a] brilliant design … allowing us to attract unique, compelling and artisan retailers and food purveyors.”

The Yards

The second project involves the 45,000 square foot portion of the 435 apartment unit One Santa Fee under construction.  The developer announced it as a collection of 25 unique designers, specialty boutiques, and renowned chefs curated around private landscaped walkways to be called the Yards. ,

Finally, the retail is filling in the Art District to provide an exciting experience for those who work and live in the area.