162-Unit Affordable Tower in Sawtelle Cleared for Foundation Work

The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety on Oct. 23 issued a $4.2 million foundation-only permit for a 162-unit, 100% affordable building at 1510 S. Saltair Ave. in Sawtelle. For West LA builders, it means one of the area’s larger affordable projects can start digging before its main building permit is issued.

Permit 25010-10002-03630 is an early-start supplemental to base permit 25010-10000-03630. The base filing describes an eight-story, 73,984-square-foot building on a 15,183-square-foot lot in Council District 11. It lists 103 studios and 59 one-bedrooms.

A 2025 LAYIMBY report described a 162-unit, zero-parking project at 1520 S. Saltair Ave., filed under Executive Directive 1 by developer Passo with Aero Collective as architect. That report described seven stories; the LADBS base filing says eight. The unit count, timing and street match, but we could not confirm the 1510 and 1520 addresses are the same project, so the Passo link is not stated as fact.

Why it matters

ED1 strips discretionary review from 100% affordable projects to get them to construction faster. The base permit here was filed Aug. 11, 2025. Foundation work cleared about 14 months later, while the main permit sits at quality review. Splitting off an early foundation permit is how a developer buys back that time.

The numbers

The foundation permit carries a declared valuation of $4,228,998. The base permit declares $9.9 million. Of the 162 units, 128 are set aside as low income, 33 as moderate income, and one is a market-rate manager’s unit, per the base filing.

What’s next

The next milestone is issuance of base permit 25010-10000-03630, which covers the building above the foundation. We will track it and update the developer identification if county or city records tie the 1510 address to Passo. More West LA filings are on our Los Angeles market page.