Costco's LA Housing Venture: If I can make it there I'm gonna make it anywhere

Costco's inventory management is second to none, so it can afford to experiment with selling products like $2,000+ gold bars, $1,150 funeral caskets, or chicken coops; if the items don't move, they can be pulled quickly with limited financial exposure.

However, this new venture is a substantial commitment that cannot be abandoned easily: Los Angeles affordable housing.

The project, to be built by developer Thrive Living and architects AO, was first announced early last year in a press release that revealed renderings of a mixed-use model with multiple floors, open courtyard spaces and other amenities. All told, the build would encompass not only the Costco store (and necessary parking) but a whopping 800 residential units, including 184 set aside specifically for low-income tenants.

Not only is Costco trying its hand at building and operating residential real estate, it's doing so in California, whose regulations make it one of the most difficult places to build.

The city’s upcoming South LA Costco, slated for 5035 Coliseum St. at the intersection with La Brea, is building up on a vacant 5-acre lot that was formerly a hospital. The redone site will not only encompass the store and 800 individual apartments, it will also include a fitness area, multi-use community space, multiple courtyards and landscaped paths, a rooftop pool, and other amenities like gardens. Oh, and lots of parking too, of course.

So how, exactly, is everything going to fit together on this relatively compact lot, particularly when layers of bureaucracy, local input, unique design and state-level lawmaking are added to the cement mix?

“The planning and land use system in California and in LA is a Rube Goldberg machine,” housing activist Joe Cohen tells SFGATE, “and this project is seeing that machine laid bare.”

In a long post on X earlier this month, Cohen described the complex construction hurdles faced by Thrive Living, AO and Costco in detail, ticking off state Assembly bills and union rules for construction projects of this size. The result of all that regulatory navigation is an unconventional building with a less-than-usual look, something Cohen inelegantly dubbed the “Costco Prison.”

Cohen later admitted that the term "Costco Prison" was inapt and voiced his support of the project.

It's difficult to judge the look and feel of a place from drawings, but almost everyone gives Costco the benefit of the doubt due to its track record of success.