Final approval near on plans for 600-room downtown L.A. hotel.

The first stage of the planned Mangrove Estate development near L.A.'s Little Tokyo -- comprised of a 600-room hotel -- could begin construction in six months, a representative of the project's developer said last week.

He said the project in downtown Los Angeles, which has been in development for five years, is in the final stages of obtaining city approvals. Pushing things along, he said, is the company financing the project -- a Taiwan-based airline -- is eager for construction to begin because it starts service into Los Angeles on Dec. 18.

The hotel, part of the proposed $300 million Mangrove Estate complex, will be a 24-story luxury property catering to both business and leisure travelers, said Albert Taira of Taira Services Co. in Los Angeles. Taira Services is the managing partner on a companion project -- First Street South Plaza.

The Mangrove Estate project, including the hotel, will be on the northeast corner of the intersection of Alameda and First streets, and the First Street complex is planned for the southeast corner. Los Angeles-based Shoji Shimizu is the architect for both projects and he has designed them as companion developments.

Together, the cost of the two projects will exceed $500 million, said Taira, including about $100 million for the hotel.

With hotel room occupancy at one of its lowest points ever in Los Angeles County, industry analysts said it is a bad time to build a new property in an already glutted market. Occupancy rates at downtown hotels have been particularly low and well below the industry accepted break-even point of between 65 percent and 67 percent for most properties.

But downtown hoteliers expect business will pick up when the recession ends and the $500 million expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center is completed in late summer or early fall of 1993. Hoteliers and local convention and tourism officials say more downtown hotel rooms will be needed then.

The convention center is about a mile south of the central downtown area and at least two miles from the site of the Mangrove Estate hotel, which will be called the Evergreen Laurel.

Taira said the primary selling point of the hotel will be its link to Eva Air rather than its proximity to the convention center.

Eva Air is a new commercial airline based in Taiwan that will start service into Los Angeles in December. It is owned by Evergreen Group, a large transportation conglomerate based in Taiwan that is also providing financing for the hotel.

Taira said Evergreen will own and manage the hotel, which at 600 rooms will be one of the largest hotels in Los Angeles County.

"The idea of Eva is to have a hotel in every city they serve," said Taira. "I know they are very anxious for work to start on the hotel and are wondering why nothing has happened yet."

He said planning for the hotel is in the final stages and the only major government action needed is approval of the environmental impact report, according to Taira.

He said the surrounding community supports the projects.

The Los Angeles City Planning Department is now reviewing the project's environmental impact report but a public hearing on the proposal has not yet been scheduled, a spokesman said. The spokesman said he could not say whether there are any serious questions or problems with the report.

In addition to the hotel, the Mangrove Estate project will include 1,200 residential units and 470,000 square feet of office space. The First Street South project will include 600,000 square feet of office space, 626 residential units and a 130,000-square-foot health club.

Taira said he did not know when construction could start on the rest of the Mangrove Estate project or the First Street project.