El Monte Gateway Parcel 2

A 212-unit apartment building has been approved for a vacant lot within walking distance of the El Monte Transit Center, the valley's biggest bus hub. It is the next residential piece of El Monte Gateway, the transit village growing up around the station. El Monte first approved it in 2016 and approved the same plans again in 2022. Nothing has been built yet. In September the city extended the approval a fourth time, to 2027, while the owner closes a deal with a developer to build it.

What's proposed

All 212 apartments would be market-rate rentals over two levels of parking: one underground and one at street level. Units run from 514-square-foot studios to 1,161-square-foot two-bedrooms. Residents would share a lounge, a fitness center, and a podium deck with lawn, barbecues, a fire pit and a row of spas. The building would hold 289 parking spaces.

The plan set, attached to the Planning Commission's September 8, 2026 agenda packet, breaks down the homes this way:

The site plan sheet also lists the building's gross area by level. The bottom three levels are full-footprint parking and podium; the apartments sit above them in a smaller footprint.

A rendering and elevations are in the plan set linked above.

The site and what's around it

Parcel 2 is 1.83 acres off Santa Anita Avenue, with its entrance on Santa Fe Drive, a new street built for the Gateway. The Rio Hondo bike path runs along its northwest edge, and the 10 Freeway is about a third of a mile south. The lot was graded during the Gateway's first infrastructure phase, so the city treats any further digging as minor.

The rest of the Gateway is filling in around it. Jamboree Housing's Exchange at Gateway, 132 affordable apartments on Parcel 1, opened in 2015. Aston at Gateway, 208 market-rate apartments over 25,000 square feet of shops on Parcel 4, finished in 2023. Parcel 3, the former Pioneer Park, is still empty.

The design

SVA Architects of Santa Ana designed the building. SVA also drew the Gateway master plan, the Exchange and Aston. On the outside, the staff report describes stucco and precast concrete walls with metal and wood siding, steel awnings and angled sunshades. A green-screen wall wraps the ground floor, and the entries are set off with oversized frames.

How it got here

El Monte adopted the Gateway Specific Plan in 2007. A specific plan is a custom zoning rulebook for one district. Its original environmental impact report covers every building in the plan, so each new piece only needs an addendum, a short update saying the impacts haven't grown. Parcel 2 needed design review, the city's sign-off on a building's site plan and looks.

Grapevine Development, the Gateway's master developer, carried Parcel 2 through its 2016 approval. By 2022 the city reported that the original developer had been replaced. The parcel is now owned by TPMC Services, LLC, which got the 2016 plans approved again without changes.

What still has to happen

The approval now runs to September 9, 2027. Before then the owner has to close the deal with a developer, update the plans to current building code, and pull building permits. At the September hearing, the owner's representative estimated construction would take about two years once it starts.

Why this one matters

Parcel 2 is the next phase of El Monte Gateway. Two parcels are already built and lived in: the Exchange's affordable apartments and Aston's apartments over shops. Parcel 2's plans are approved, and the owner is working out a partnership to build them. When it moves forward, it adds 212 homes within walking distance of the valley's biggest bus hub.

What this means if you live nearby

Nothing changes at the site yet. Once a developer signs on, the next sign would be a building permit and a construction fence along Santa Fe Drive. Until then, the lot stays empty between the Exchange, Aston and the bike path.