(excerpt San Fernando Valley Business Journal)
By SHELLY GARCIA
Senior Reporter
Ventura Boulevard – the 20-mile strip that is the Valley’s main artery – has been a popular address for all types of commercial businesses. But now something new is going to join all those office and retail developments: housing.
City officials have just given the green light to a project to construct about 125 apartment units as part of a mixed-use development that will include ground floor retail along Ventura Boulevard in Encino.
The development underway by Samson Investment Company’s Gold Mountain Enterprises division, a Calabasas-based real estate company, marks the first time apartments will be located along what has been an exclusively commercial strip. It comes at a time when the demand for housing of all kinds is reaching crisis proportions throughout the city and officials are taking steps to encourage developers to build residential units on commercially zoned lots.