Highlighting Downtown Arcadia: Downtown Mixed-Use Project Q&A

– Courtesy rendering

The Downtown Arcadia Improvement Association

For this week’s column, the Downtown AIA sat down with Douglas Wu of Fortune Time Development to discuss their new mixed-use project under construction at 57 Wheeler Ave in beautiful downtown Arcadia.

Describe the development and what’s the estimated time of completion?

The project is located at the NW corner of First Ave and Wheeler near the Arcadia Metro Gold Line Station and will be the first mixed-use development to come online.  It consists of 38 units of residential apartments and 17,000 square-feet of commercial space on the ground floor.  Construction is estimated to finish in late 2018 with residential and commercial tenants occupying the building by the first quarter of 2019.

What do you find appealing about Downtown Arcadia and the project site?  

I grew up in Arcadia and I’ve always had a personal attachment to the city.  My father, Daniel Wu, is the owner of Giantech and has been building in the city for over 30 years.  It’s a great city to grow up in and we’ve watched it slowly evolve from a mostly suburban area to something more tightly integrated with the rest of Los Angeles.  Our development site is steps from the Metro Station and 24-hour Fitness, and in the heart of downtown Arcadia.  We’re very confident that the location is right.  We are currently working with our brokers, CBRE, on commercial leasing and they are very strong in this market.  Our strategy is to find tenants that will appeal to the on-site apartments, Metro-riders, and 24-hour fitness patrons; as well as the daytime worker population + nighttime / weekend crowd.  We anticipate food and beverage uses such as a coffee shop, restaurant, and juice bar, along with some specialized retail.  Because of the size of the residential units and Metro-adjacent location, we predict a younger demographic for the apartments that includes starter families looking for an entry point into Arcadia and young professionals commuting to downtown Los Angeles.

What do you envision Downtown Arcadia will look like in 10 years?

I think that downtown Arcadia has a lot of potential, but I also think that Westfield Santa Anita is such an attraction that it can be difficult at times to establish a strong commercial presence outside of the mall.  At the same time, I think the city of Arcadia has been very adamant about establishing a downtown. That’s a great thing because when you have a city that is willing to develop, it makes it more captivating to developers to invest in the area.  I know there is strong interest in a number of other downtown Arcadia sites for potential mixed-use development and anticipate some of these to come online in the near future.

Any final thoughts about your project and downtown Arcadia?

The Downtown Arcadia commercial district really fits our needs and this type of mixed-use development will be a great addition because we share a similar vision with the City of Arcadia to revitalize and bring a youthful energy to this city.

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