Every week, Next republishes one article from the City Manager’s weekly update to staff.
Three significant housing developments on Wilshire Boulevard are moving toward issuance of building permits as the first applicants to use Santa Monica’s new Off-Site Affordable Housing Pilot Incentive Program, a tool the City Council approved in August 2025 specifically designed to break the logjam that has been stalling housing production across the City.
Together, the three projects will deliver nearly 600 hundred new homes, with the affordable component consolidated at a single off-site receiver location at 1415 Wilshire Boulevard.
The three projects are:
1902 Wilshire Boulevard – an 8-story mixed-use building with ~150 residential units above ground-floor commercial space (designed by Patrick Tighe Architecture). Construction has already begun on this site. (A rendering of the site appears in the image above. – DN)
2025–2037 Wilshire Boulevard – an 8-story mixed-use building with approximately ~150 residential units above ground-floor retail (designed by DLR Group). The project replaces a single-story commercial strip currently anchored by Chipotle and Veggie Grill.
2501 Wilshire Boulevard – an 8-story mixed-use building with ~170 residential units above ground-floor retail and subterranean parking (designed by Ottinger Architects). Located directly across from Douglas Park.
Across these three projects, the 46 deed-restricted affordable units required by the City’s affordability obligations are being consolidated and built off-site at 1415 Wilshire Boulevard, where they will be developed and operated by a nonprofit affordable housing provider, as the program requires.
Santa Monica’s Affordable Housing Production Program (AHPP), approved by City voters via Proposition R in November 1990, has produced more than 1,200 affordable apartments since its inception. AHPP requires every market-rate housing development of six or more units to either include 15% affordable units on-site, build a higher percentage (20%) at an off-site location, or pay an in-lieu fee. Under these long-standing rules, however, off-site affordable units had to be completed before the market-rate units, a sequencing rule that, given the current tight regulatory and construction financing environment, was contributing to projects stalling at the permit stage.
The Off-Site Affordable Housing Pilot Incentive Program, approved by Council on August 12, 2025, was designed specifically to address that bottleneck. The pilot allows participating developers to construct the market-rate portion in parallel with the affordable component (rather than waiting for the affordable units to finish first). In exchange, the off-site affordable units carry stricter protections – including a 75-year deed restriction (versus the 55-year standard) and a clear 48-month construction commitment.
The three Wilshire projects represent the first wave of the pilot in action, where stalled housing projects are now moving toward construction. This work directly advances the Affordable Housing For All objective of our Realignment Plan and our broader Housing Element commitments. Real credit goes to staff across Community Development, City Attorney’s Office, and the Housing & Human Services Department. More to come as these projects move ahead, and of course, please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about this particular matter!
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