The historic Acres of Books building will be wrapped into the project
Downtown Long Beach has become a hotbed of development lately, and a large new project at the site of a long-shuttered bookstore is only adding to the mix.
As Longbeachize reports, the new development on Long Beach Boulevard between Third Street and Broadway is set to include a 21-story residential tower and a separate seven-story structure with apartments and a performing arts venue for California State University Long Beach.
Called Broadway Block, the project is being developed by a partnership between Long Beach firms Ratkovich Properties and Urbana Development, as well as Irvine-based Owl Companies.
At the center of the 50,000-square-foot lot is the Moderne-style Acres of Books building, constructed in the 1920s and the home of a beloved bookstore between 1960 and 2008.
The structure, a city of Long Beach landmark, will be preserved as part of the new project and adaptively reused—though renderings suggest the hangar-like building will be sliced in two in order to create a small courtyard at the heart of the complex.
The $ 154 million development will include a total of 375 apartments, including 141 affordable units for CSULB graduate students. It will also include at least 11,459 square-feet of commercial space, 3,200 square feet of space for the University, and 5,773 square feet of creative office space.
According to a project page on the Ratkovich Properties website, construction is expected to begin in 2018.