Kevin Ratner, Southern California development manager for Forest City, tells GlobeSt.com that the company expects to begin building in the first quarter next year, with construction to be finished in about 16 months. He says the project site is on 1.7 acres along 11th Street between Flower and Hope Streets, about a block from the Staples sports venue.

The development will be called Metro Lofts, and about 70% of the apartments will be one-bedroom units and the rest two-bedroom apartments, according to Ratner. Rents are expected to range from about $1,600 to $2,300 per month for the market rate units. Ratner says 20% of the units will be affordable apartments, based on the formula of 50% of area median income. Forest City includes affordable apartments in its developments throughout the country, Ratner said: "We do it as a commitment to the community because we think it is a good policy that benefits both the people and the property."

Forest City's financing for the development includes $53 million in state bonds that the company secured through the California Debt Limit Allocation program, which provides low-interest financing for projects that qualify.

Ratner tells GlobeSt.com that Forest City will build via a ground lease with the City of Los Angeles. The property is in the city's redevelopment area, and the developer is building the project in cooperation with the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The eight-story apartment complex will feature an embedded garage, meaning the garage will be an eight-story structure next to the apartment building, enabling residents to park their cars on the same floor as their apartments. "It will look like one building," Ratner explains, but it will actually be two structures.

Ratner tells GlobeSt.com Forest City was attracted to the downtown site because of the shortage of housing throughout Los Angeles, especially downtown, which has one of the region's highest occupancy rates for apartments.

Forest City owns an existing downtown apartment complex that it built about 12 years ago, the 270-unit Metropolitan, and expects to retain ownership of the new complex as well. It also plans to build 277 apartments at the downtown L.A. Subway Terminal Building in a project slated to begin next year. Forest City's other California apartment holdings include about 2,000 units in San Francisco and San Jose, plus 230 units in San Diego.