The Vanilla Villa: Orsini Apartments, Cesar Chavez Avenue & Figueroa Street, Downtown
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 at 9 a.m. Figueroa Street , Downtown" /> Wendy Gilmartin Even before construction crews broke ground on the Orsini apartment complex back in 2001, its developers made themselves locally infamous for wriggling out of an inclusionary zoning provision that requires new residential apartment developments to contain at least 15 percent affordable units . (Attorneys on the developer's side argued the provision would cause "difficulties and hardships" by lowering the owners' cash flow.) Flash forward 11 years later (and two additional phases and two enormous additional buildings later) and the Orsini apartments at Figueroa Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue downtown are currently more than 15 percent vacant. They also host one of the hottest parking garages in town for car break-ins and petty criminal activity . Aside from its politically contentious past and crime riddled present , what makes the Orsini " apartment resort "...