A Catalyst for Revitalization in South Los Angeles

Jan 05, 2011

VIVIAN BOWERS: This used to be like Black Hollywood. Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, the likes would entertain along Central Avenue. As things progressed, and we were able to move west, it changed and the area began to deteriorate. The community started pulling together and fighting back and saying they wanted their community back. The Council people got involved, and now it’s Jan Perry, she’s very involved.

JAN PERRY: For me, Central Avenue was always the emotional center of the district. One project which I’m particularly proud is located at Adams and Central. It has a grocery store and retail on the ground floor, but it has housing for families on top.

JOHN HUSKEY: This project had, counting construction and permanent, eleven different sources of money that all had to be reconciled. And through all of it, the Community Development business people sort of were, “don’t worry, we’re going to get through it.”

JAN PERRY: To be able to do that with the private sector with the funding that Bank of America helped to provide and also to help us compete on tax credits at the state level, all those things came together in confluence to create this project that has taken people to a whole new level.

GARRETT GIN: Bank of America’s involvement in the Adams and Central project is multifaceted. The bank’s role was to bring experts who could help address new market tax credits and equity and lending and all of the different facets that help a project like that come to fruition.

GAIL LANNOY: There’s a housing shortage for people that are in lower-paying jobs. By having development, you create jobs, and by creating jobs, then that helps invigorate and revive a community.

SHELBY TRICE: My name is Shelby Trice, and I’m a team lead here at Fresh and Easy. I saw the development taking place every single day, I told my daughter when they were building, “I’m gonna work there.” Everyday I love my job, and I know I make an impact here. We touch so many lives everyday, believe it or not.

VIVIAN BOWERS: Before Fresh and Easy came in, you had to travel quite a distance. But today, you can go get your dinner, you can have lunch and they have a place that they can shop.

GARRETT GIN: Adams and Central is really the heart of that South LA community. But it needed a catalyst; it needed something to spark the growth. And that project really captures so many of the solutions that are going to help South LA become a vibrant community again.

GAIL LANNOY: We work at doing the right thing from a business standpoint, but also to help our communities. It’s one thing to do something that is good business sense, and it also really helps when you’re doing the right thing. So when you put those two things together, then you can’t lose.

VIVIAN BOWERS: I’ve seen the full circle. I’ve seen it go to the lowest end, and now we’re back again. And things can only go up from here.

The intersection of East Adams Boulevard and Central Avenue represents both the past and the future of South Los Angeles. The area, once a bustling hub of the African American community, began a gradual decline in the late 1950s. Affluent residents moved away, neighborhoods deteriorated, and jobs and businesses were lost. With those businesses went healthy lifestyle and food options.

“The area became a desert,” said Vivian Bowers, owner of nearby, third-generation dry cleaning business. “A food and business desert.”

Decades passed before the community came together to rebuild the area, block by block. Today, the vacant building that marked the corner of Adams and Central has been transformed into a mixed-use development. The development includes 19,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, 80 affordable housing units and two levels of above ground parking. A new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, committed to providing fresh food to the local community, occupies 80 percent of the retail space.

In addition to offering healthy fare, the grocery store has created job opportunities for area residents like Shelby Trice, a manager-in-training at Fresh & Easy. Shelby was one of 20 employees recruited from a local job fair. She enjoys getting to know the tenants of the development, who are regular customers.

The project was initiated by Meta Housing Corporation and its president, John Huskey. They wanted to build housing, but the City Council wanted to replace the market that once served the neighborhood. The resulting mixed-use development, backed by Council member Jan Perry, required 11 different sources of funding. Bank of America contributed $34.8 million in bond financing and tax credit investments, as well as the intellectual capital needed to bring the project to fruition.

“South Los Angeles has a number of needs,” said Garrett Gin, senior vice president, global corporate social responsibility, Bank of America. “This project captures so much of what is needed—affordable housing as well as fresh and healthy food. It’s all encapsulated in the Adams and Central project.”

The development at Adams and Central has become a beacon of the reemerging community. Since Fresh & Easy opened its doors in February 2010 and the housing opened in June 2010, three markets and a few mixed-use developments have sprung up in South Los Angeles. Area residents are hopeful that this ripple effect will create a more stable, successful community.

A Catalyst for Revitalization in South Los Angeles

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