From Taco Stand to Retail Stores
A little more than one year ago, the corner of Maple Avenue and Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles was home to a small taco stand sitting at the edge of an asphalt parking lot. But the makeshift eatery was razed and the parking lot torn up to make way for a new project called 1000 Maple Center.
On Feb. 22, the 15,000-square-foot center opens with 64 retail spaces dedicated to selling accessories, costume jewelry and women’s apparel. Atop the one-story building, done in an art deco motif, is a parking lot.
This is one of several Los Angeles Fashion District projects for the KI Group, headed by Sina Kangavari, who works with his brother Wizeman and his father, Fereidoon.
Last year, the KI Group completed the Accessory Collection at 820 S. Maple Ave., another art deco–style building that houses several retail and accessories stores. The Los Angeles Fashion District will present the property with a District Improvement Award this year.
“We are trying to set a higher standard as far as development is concerned for the Fashion District,” said Sina Kangavari, whose buildings have a more elegant look to them than the standard plain-square structures seen on many Fashion District streets.
The KI Group is already working on its next development, called the Pico Regency Project, which is being built on a former parking lot located at 732–742 E. Pico Blvd. near San Pedro Street. The 100,000-square-foot structure, which the development group expects to complete by the end of the year, also will be dedicated to retail and wholesale stores.
Kangavari is following in the footsteps of his father, an Iranian developer who launched his career in Tehran and then moved to Los Angeles. Fereidoon has spent 20 years building a number of structures in the Fashion District, including the Los Angeles Collection at 926 S. Los Angeles St., next to the Gerry Building. That building won a Los Angeles Fashion District award in 2001. —Deborah Belgum
