The affordable developer LINC Housing has been active in Los Angeles, amid the city’s push to increase its inventory of lower-priced apartments.
Now, LINC has joined up a stalled project project in Westlake-Historic Filipinotown.
The Long Beach developer filed plans for a 64-unit project at 3200 W. Temple Street and an adjacent parking lot, which together total about a half-acre. The project would include 6,500 square feet of commercial space. A one-story building exists there now housing the nonprofit group Search to Involve Filipino Americans. The building will be demolished to make way for the new development.
Three year ago, SIPA and developer Rick Ursitti secured approvals for a 59-unit affordable project at that location, but never started construction. Both remain involved in the project, Ursitti told The Real Deal. SIPA will have its headquarters at the new building.
The two projects differ in some ways. The units in the new five-story LINC project are specifically for formerly homeless residents, where units at the older project were restricted only by income level. The new LINC project’s planned 6,500 square feet of commercial space is 4,000 more than what had been requested in the older project.
LINC boosted the number of units in the project through the city’s Transit Oriented Communities program projects near transit options, a program that didn’t exist when SIPA and Ursitti planned their first project there. The program has proven very popular with market-rate developers building small-lot projects. By setting aside around 10 percent of the units as affordable, developers can increase the size of the project, and add apartments.
Westlake has seen several TOC projects since the program took effect in late 2017. Last month, a dentist-turned-developer made use of the project for a 57-unit development near MacArthur Park.
LINC is now working on a 100-unit project in Willowbrook and a 160-unit project in South L.A. In January, LINC partnered with National CORE for a 91-unit project in San Pedro.