Apartments catering to Gen Y being built in downtown Glendale

An apartment complex with small units intended to appeal to young people eager to get away from roommates and parents into a place of their own is nearing completion in downtown Glendale.

The $34-million mixed-use project named Eleve Lofts & Skydeck is designed for the tastes and needs of Generation Y — people between the ages of 20 and 34, said Alan Dibartolomeo of AMF Development.

Research by the Huntington Beach company found that many young adults would prefer to live in a small place alone than to live in a larger space with a roommate, even if it costs more to do so.

AMF razed a former Circuit City electronics warehouse store on the corner of Maryland Avenue and Broadway in Glendale’s urban shopping district to make way for Eleve. It will have three underground parking levels, shops and restaurants at street level, and six stories of apartments with 208 units above the retail spaces.

The “micro” one-bedroom units will be about one-third smaller than average one-bedroom units at less than 400 square feet. There will also be “dual master” units with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The roof “sky deck” is intended to be an open-air social space with cabanas, barbecues, fire pits, a dog park, media center, hot and cold spas, and a “poet’s corner” that includes a piano.

Eleve will also have a fitness center and furnished business center with workstations.

“Our target audience is an environmentally conscious and technologically savvy generation made up of young renters who are delaying marriage and family in favor of careers,” said Greg Parker, chief executive of AMF.

Rents are expected to range from $1,600 to $2,800 a month when the complex opens in early spring, the company said. Eleve is the prototype for similar complexes that AMF hopes to build in other urban centers including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

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