Consortium to Bring Mixed-Use to South LA, With 4-Acre Park

A consortium of developers has updated plans to build hundreds of homes in a mixed-use village in South Los Angeles, with fewer units and a larger park than initially envisioned.

The joint venture led by the locally based Bakewell Company and the New Jersey-based Michaels Organization have filed revised plans for the retail-office village at 5867 South Los Angeles Street, Urbanize Los Angeles reported, which would replace a vacant lot owned by the city.

New plans call for 300 units of family affordable housing, 10,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, 10,000 square feet of nonprofit offices, a 4-acre park, 20,000 square feet of additional open space and parking for 250 cars.

The revised project cuts down the size of the project and the number of proposed homes spelled out in a 2021 development agreement between the city and Bakewell and Michaels as well as Capri Investment Group and the Brotherhood Crusade, a nonprofit social service agency.

Initial plans had called for 525 apartments, including 280 “workforce” units and 245 affordable units reserved for families and seniors earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income.

The original $239 million development also called for a 60,000-square-foot central park, a supermarket run by Superior Foods, business incubator spaces, community centers, shops and restaurants and parking for 565 cars.

Included in that initial 89-acre plan would have been a new home for the Brotherhood Crusade, currently located at 200 East Slauson Avenue.

But a report last month by the City Administrative Officer said the developers and the city weren’t able to find funding for the remediation of the future Brotherhood Crusade site.

So it will instead go toward a larger public park, for which the city has received Prop. 84 grant funding, according to Urbanize.

The report advises that the City Council should authorize staff to engage in negotiations with the remaining development partners, including Bakewell and Michaels, for a new 12-month period, with an optional 12-month extension.

The site at Slauson Avenue and Wall Street fell into the hands of the city in 2013 after the breakup of the Community Redevelopment Agency. It’s not far from the Metro’s Rail to Rail transit corridor, which broke ground three years ago to connect parts of South L.A.

— Dana Bartholomew