The 281-unit housing development coming to 6700 Pacific Coast Hwy. is officially underway. Demolition has begun on the Congressional Place office building, which greeted drivers for decades crossing the Orange-to-Los Angeles County line on Pacific Coast Highway. Now, a few steel beams remain of the office building as crews prepare the structure’s sloping foundation.
It is one of three major housing projects that will alter the highway’s gateway into Alamitos Bay.
So what is going to be built at 6700 Pacific Coast Hwy.?
Congressional Place was sold for $41M back in 2022. (This was just five years after the site was sold to ValueRock Realty for $24M.) The project will bring 281 units to the corner of PCH and Studebaker. And that includes 17 studios, 161 one-bedrooms, 85 two-bedrooms, and 18 three-bedrooms. 13 of those units will be reserved for very-low-income households (thanks to Long Beach’s inclusionary ordinance). Overall? The building will reach a height of just over 85 feet under state density bonus laws.
The development is being framed as a sort of gateway to Long Beach. After all, it’s one of the first things people will see as they come over the bridge from Seal Beach. And Holland Partner Group, the team behind the project, is leaning into that visibility: Retail will activate the corner at Studebaker, and a mural by local artists will span the PCH frontage. A fitness center will also be included in the plans.
Wait—they can make a building as high as the one proposed for 6700 Pacific Coast Hwy.?
The project faced pushback from three groups claiming it needed a full environmental review. It was ultimately shot down by the City Council, which allowed the project to move forward. Given its placement on the San Gabriel River—not the coast—it does not have to face the California Coastal Commission, the entity that oversees development on our shoreline. The groups cited concerns about traffic, greenhouse gas emissions, and conflicts with local design standards, especially with its height…