Developer Plans Transit Complex

PASADENA, CA-Walnut Acquisition Partners LLC and Standard Pacific Homes plan to create a transit-oriented development on a 52,217-sf site at 220 N. Lake Ave. that Walnut bought recently from local investors, according to Scott Martin of NAI Capital Commercial, who brokered the sale of the parcel where the development will take shape. Martin says the buyers will work with Standard Pacific to redevelop the property into a complex with office space, retail and residential condominiums as well as live-work flats. The property, which will include subterranean parking, is located near the 210 freeway and Lake Avenue and about an eighth of a mile from the Gold Line Metro Rail station at Lake Avenue.The new transit-oriented project will be the latest in a series of developments in Pasadena that have capitalized on the Gold Line and other changes that have led to new projects in and around the downtown areas of the city. Among the other projects is Del Mar Station, a mixture of apartments and shops that is a development of Urban Partners LLC of Los Angeles and will occupy 4.5 acres near the new Metro Gold Line stop. It will include 347 apartment units and 11,000 sf of retail space that will be about 15 minutes from Union Station and within walking distance of Old Town Pasadena. Other projects include Los Angeles-based Champion Development's mixed-use Pasadena Collection at South Lake and Cordova avenues, in the midst of the city's South Lake Avenue District, which is composed of two four-story towers featuring street-level retail, 72 luxury apartments, 38 New York-style lofts and 18,000 sf of commercial space that is being marketed as office condominiums.Earlier this year, Newport Beach-based developer GKH Limited acquired 130,680 sf of retail-zoned land to develop mixed-use buildings ranging in size from 6,000 sf to 30,000 sf on a site at 3020 Colorado Blvd., a high-traffic street near Pasadena Community College and the 210 Freeway, and Sares-Regis Group of Irvine acquired 11 acres in downtown Pasadena for what the developer says will be a transit-oriented residential and retail project within walking distance of two Gold Line stations.