Iron Lofts Mixed Use Development
Description
A 291-unit mixed-use project with 9 live/work units on 7.03 acres in the Seventh Street East Historic District, integrating the Barely Mills Building. The Board was set to consider the Certificate of Appropriateness.
Impact summary
Turns a blighted industrial brownfield into roughly 300 homes near downtown, UCR, and major job hubs, with the historic Barley Mills building reused as an amenity. Parking falls 86 spaces short of the old requirement, allowed under state law AB 2097 because of the transit corridor location.
Applicant
- Name
- Darrin Olson, Iron Lofts, LLC
- Address
- 3596 Commerce Street, Riverside, CASee this on the map
At a glance
- Hearings
- 2
- Public comments
- 0
- Total mentions
- 2
Last vote · Planning Commission
A recommendation. The council’s outcome is not on record here.
Last discussed May 21, 2026.
Meeting timeline (2)
Planning Commission — May 21, 2026
A 300-unit mixed-use project on a former scrap metal yard, recommended unanimously to the City Council for approval along with the environmental document. It bundles a general plan amendment, rezone, specific plan amendment, tract map, site plan review, and historic certificate of appropriateness.
Cultural Heritage Board — May 20, 2026
Certificate of appropriateness for a 7.03-acre, 291-unit mixed-use project that rehabilitates the Barley Mills building as a clubhouse and adds townhomes and a dog park on the former Soda Works site.
Related issues (2)
Iron Lofts mixed-use development in Seventh Street East Historic District
300 new homes on a former scrap-metal brownfield near downtown, with the historic Barley Mills building saved as a clubhouse. It rezones industrial land to mixed-use right where the council keeps hearing 'we never build housing.'
Iron Lofts mixed-use housing on former scrap yard
A 7-acre contaminated brownfield on Commerce Street would become 300 homes with live/work units and a restored historic building, bringing housing to an industrial stretch near downtown. It's the second phase of the nearby Mission Lofts investment.
We'll email you when it's on an upcoming agenda, when it's voted on and when its status changes, at most once a day.
The weekly brief for Riverside
What the council decided, in plain English — one email a week.
Free. Unsubscribe with one click any time. We never sell your email.