[BrandonJXN]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The owner of the City West apartment project Canvas L.A. has come up with an alternative for 5,000 square feet of never-filled ground-floor commercial space.
Rather than continue to try to find a restaurant or retail tenant, the space could become homes. Canvas officials are scheduled to go before the Department of City Planning on Nov. 19 to apply for permits that would allow them to build six residential units in the retail space at the 204-apartment building. Canvas officials would not comment on the proposed change for the building at 138 N. Beaudry Ave. The property was developed by Arizona-based Alliance Residential and opened in 2008. Three years later, it was sold to LaSalle Investment Management for $62.5 million. Although rents range from about $1,800 for studio units to $5,000 for three-bedroom apartments, the building owners have never been able to fill the commercial space facing Beaudry Avenue.

It was a dumb idea to have retail on Canvas seeing how isolated it is. But I think Canvas is a nice looking building perfectly appropriate for areas of downtown like City West and Little Tokyo. It looks better in person than in pictures it should be said. Midrise buildings like these add lots of density if built correctly.