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# Four new buildings slated for downtown Hangin’ three
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/four-new-buildings-slated-for-downtown-hangin-three/
- Published: 2003-09-20T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:58:26.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Government & Politics, Downtown, #archive-import

*Site was once chosen for a Target department store*

Four new buildings are going up at a downtown site where city officials once wanted a Target store.

With the ground work under way on 10 lots at Santa Monica Boulevard and Fifth Street, developers are working to secure their final permits. When completed, each of the four buildings will stand five-stories tall and have three levels of underground parking.

The Target project ultimately died in 2001, because of City Hall’s concerns about increased traffic posed by the big box retailer.

“It wound up putting something like 20,000 more cars on Fifth Street a day,” said City Councilman Bob Holbrook. “It’s an enormous amount of ins and outs, and I was one of the council members (who) didn’t think the street could handle that amount of traffic.”

Holbrook ended up voting against the Target, despite the tax revenue the store would have generated.

“I took a lot of criticism for voting against that project,” Holbrook said. “My wife was even mad at me.”

After Target lost its bid, Three Coast Limited Partnership bought the land for about $11 million. Bill Hammerstein, general partner, said his group has been busy at work ever since. The project is expected to cost more than $30 million and take 18 months to finish, he said.

The project’s lead architect, David Hibbert, who also worked on the Target proposal, said he has ® Brand 15’ Extension Cord been peppered with questions about the future of the site since the work started last month.

“I’ve heard the sad story from a few people that they think it’s the Target under construction,” he said.

Each of the four buildings, with their own distinct style, will include 50-60 housing units, most of them one and two bedrooms, and 3,000-6,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floors, said project architect Tracy Lavarnway.

The two buildings at the center will be in a contemporary Italian style, modeled after 1450 Fifth St. and each designed by different architects.

“They have a totally different look and feel to them,” Lavarnway said. “The city wanted them to be all broken up. They didn’t want 10 lots of the same thing.”

The building at 1410 Fifth St., at Santa Monica Boulevard, will be a modern stucco building with a flat roof, with aluminum exterior accents and limestone on the ground floor. And the building on the other end of the site at 1450 Fifth will have a Mediterranean look, with a sloped, ceramic-tile roof and “medallions” set into the walls, Lavarnway said.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/092003-01_01-7.jpg)

A workman puts new numbers on the clock at the top of the clocktower building downtown on Friday. (Photo: John Wood/Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/092003-01_02-7.jpg)

Top: Excavation has already begun on one of the four buildings to be built at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Fifth Street. (Photo: John Wood/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 20, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092003.pdf?ref=smdp.com)