UPDATED SEPT. 5 at 2:25 p.m.:
Downtown Crenshaw Rising, a South Los Angeles group, has filed a lawsuit over its failed $115 million bid for the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in 2021, claiming that Deutsche Bank arm DWS Group “demonstrated a preference” for White buyers.
In a complaint filed on Aug. 26, Downtown Crenshaw Rising, along with an organization called Members Against Anti-Black Racism at Pension Funds, sued defendants that include DWS, Chicago-based investment Capri Capital Partners, Eastdil Secured, Harridge Development Group, the Regents of the University of California and retirement funds for government workers in California, Texas, New York, Michigan and New Jersey.
Quintin Primo, head of Capri Capital, the previous owner of the mall, declined to comment on the case, saying that he has not yet seen the complaint. DWS was tasked with overseeing the sale, according to court records.
In its petition, Downtown Crenshaw Rising claims that DWS showed a preference for White developers, particularly firms with ties to former President Donald Trump. In 2020, LivWrk, a firm led by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, submitted a bid for the property, located at 3650 West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. That deal fell apart, following in the footsteps of a failed $100 million bid from CIM Group.
CIM has closed a number of deals with Trump and people in his orbit. The firm owns the former Trump SoHo hotel, now known as the Domick, in New York. It also entered a joint venture with Kushner for the 2016 acquisition of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower building in Brooklyn.
The Crenshaw mall was ultimately sold to Harridge Development Group. Billionaire Len Blavatnik, who owns Warner Music Group, and his firm Access Real Estate were investors in the Harridge bid. Blavatnik donated $1 million to the Republican National Committee in 2016 for the Trump inauguration, according to a spokeswoman for Access Industries, Blavatnik’s holding company.
Downtown Crenshaw Rising claims that its offer was “financially superior” to the $111 million bid from Harridge. Aside from the higher bid price, the group claims that their offer included an $11 million nonrefundable deposit and had a quicker closing period.
“Despite these clear advantages and superiority of the [Downtown Crenshaw Rising] team and bid, Deutsche Bank/DWS consistently and systematically denied the Black community-led organization the opportunity to acquire and redevelop its own ‘40 acres and a mall,’ engaging in racially discriminatory practices that are in direct violation of civil rights laws,” the complaint reads.
In a statement sent to TRD, DWS Group disputes Downtown Crenshaw Rising’s claims, saying that they “welcomed bids from all parties.”
“All bids were evaluated based on the same objective criteria including, but not limited to, price, timing and availability of capital to close the transaction, and development experience. The process produced a buyer who closed on the transaction in 2021. DWS denies the accusations leveled against us related to this transaction and we will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims,” the firm stated.
According to a 2020 article from the New York Times, Downtown Crenshaw Rising’s plans for the site was “about building and keeping Black wealth in the community.” This included revamping the property, which sits on a 42-acre site along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, into an “urban village” with a boutique hotel, production studios, retail and affordable housing. Downtown Crenshaw Rising is not seeking a court order that would undo the sale; instead it is seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory damages. In September last year, Harridge proposed a 647,000-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment with 636 apartments at the site.
Downtown Crenshaw Rising has organized petitions to oppose selling the mall to “outside” companies. The organization describes itself as a coalition of “homeowners, renters, houseless, merchants, property owners, neighborhood associations, faith-based institutions, civil rights organizations, business leaders, civic leaders, scholar-activists, artists, and affinity groups” on its website.
Baldwin Hills, unofficially called “the Black Beverly Hills,” is an upscale African-American market. From 2007-2009, the BET reality TV series “Baldwin Hills” chronicled the life of teens in the neighborhood.
Correction: Previous story incorrectly attributed the winning bid to Blavatnik, rather than Harridge. It also misidentified Blavatnik’s political donation.