Developers Taking Aim at A Different Class of Tenant.SLOWLY but surely, higher-income urban pioneers are joining the traditional low-income tenants and homeowners in L.A.'s inner city. The most visible of the new inner-city projects catering to these tenants are coming developments by Tom Gilmore and Geoff Palmer in the downtown area. "Both of these projects are spearheading where the market is going, which is not income-restricted," said Donald Spivack, deputy administrator of the Community Redevelopment Agency. "There is a particularly large segment of people in the middle and upper-middle class who would be interested in a downtown living environment." G.H. Palmer & Associates is developing the largest apartment project in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. near Seventh Street and the Harbor (110) Freeway downtown. The 658-unit Medici Medici, Italian family Medici (mĕ`dĭchē, Ital. mā`dēchē), Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. complex, set to open in June, is a low-rise, suburban-style complex with swimming pools, a park and some retail shops. At the other end of downtown, and perhaps the better-known project, is the Gilmore Associates development at Spring and Fourth streets, a redevelopment of an historic bank building that will result in a series of loft-style apartments targeting a young, artistic crowd. Spivack divides incoming inner-city residents into three sectors. The most attractive segment for developers are the arty pioneers and trendsetters who want to live in neighborhoods where they feel they can walk around and have conveniences and entertainment at the tips of their fingers. The second segment is people who want to live close to a Metro station For the band, see . A metro station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, often known by names such as "metro", "underground" and "subway". It is often underground or elevated. At crossings of metro lines they are multi-level. . "You'll be seeing this more in the Mid-Wilshire and Hollywood area. There's going to be a lot of housing being developed in Hollywood due to the extension of Metro," Spivack said. The third and biggest segment is low-income residents. Housing for this segment of the population is generally, "done with some level of public financing, and virtually all of it is done by nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. developers, and most have roots in religious institutions," Spivack said. More market-rate housing is expected to be developed in the inner city near the new subway subway: see rapid transit. subway Underground railway system used to transport passengers within urban and suburban areas. The first subway line, 3. lines in areas like Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire and downtown, and a few projects are already underway. For example, Academy Village in North Hollywood opened in anticipation of the subway line arriving later in the spring. Two-hundred of the 250 apartments in the project are market-rate and 50 are for affordable housing tenants. In addition, Regent REGENT. 1. A ruler, a governor. The term is usually applied to one who governs a regency, or rules in the place of another. 2. In the canon law, it signifies a master or professor of a college. Dict. du Dr. Call. h.t. 3. Properties is developing a 300-unit project just south of Hollywood and Vine consisting of 80 percent market-value and 20 percent affordable housing. Still, many developers are scared off by market-rate housing in inner-city areas. "I'd love to do market rate. But I don't have confidence enough that I can get the rent to sustain them," said Tom Saffran of Tom Saffran & Associates, a for-profit housing developer that has built a number of affordable housing projects in inner-city areas. "I can't build a one-bedroom apartment for less than $100,000 a unit, and that's in Hollywood where the land is cheaper." Meanwhile more developers are recognizing the need to expand the size of their units to accommodate the extended families that tend to live in affordable housing. Rather than ignore the overcrowding overcrowding overcrowding of animal accommodation. Many countries now publish codes of practice which define what the appropriate volumetric allowances should be for each species of animal when they are housed indoors. Breaches of these codes is overcrowding. problem that comes from extended families living together, which is often the case with low-income tenants, developers and lenders are working out ways to deal with it. "We're seeing changes in? lending. Fannie Mae Fannie Mae: see Federal National Mortgage Association. has changed its underwriting Underwriting 1. The process by which investment bankers raise investment capital from investors on behalf of corporations and governments that are issuing securities (both equity and debt). 2. The process of issuing insurance policies. requirements, which reflects extended families," said Neal Richmond, director of UCLA's Advanced Policy Institute, who is doing a study on inner-city housing. Richmond says many lenders are now looking at the income of an entire household, rather than the two primary homeowners, when qualifying families for home loans. Esperanza Community Housing in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. is currently developing four affordable housing buildings. These former slum slum Densely populated area of substandard housing, usually in a city, characterized by unsanitary conditions and social disorganization. Rapid industrialization in 19th-century Europe was accompanied by rapid population growth and the concentration of working-class people apartments are being rehabbed with larger units to deal with overcrowding issues. One building originally had 104 units, but now has 44. Similarly, Hollywood Community Housing is developing a number of buildings with expanded apartments for extended families. The agency's 38-unit building on Normandie Avenue just south of Hollywood Boulevard For uses other than the original street, see Hollywood Boulevard (disambiguation). Hollywood Boulevard is a boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, beginning at Sunset Boulevard in the east and running northwest to Vermont Avenue, where it straightens out will include 20 large family units with three-and four-bedroom apartments. UCLA's Richmond stresses that the need for affordable housing isn't going anywhere, no matter how many market-rate and luxury apartments come on line in inner-city neighborhoods. "The wave of the future is always more poor people," he said. "There's always going to be incredible growth there." |
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