Revitalization of downtown heads to Olvera Street

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Revitalization of downtown heads to Olvera Street

Scott Bridges

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Developers have been moving steadily south as they revitalize downtown Los Angeles but a project approved Tuesday will gentrify a neglected neighborhood to the north that includes historic Olvera Street and Union Station.

The County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to give the green light to La Plaza Partners -- an affiliate of Dallas developer Trammell Crow -- to erect a $135-million complex that will include 341 apartments in addition to shops and community facilities where there are currently a couple of public parking lots, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Carol Schatz, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles, a downtown business group, told the Times that the area around Union Station has "kind of languished in terms of development" even as other area neighborhoods have seen revitalization during the course of the new century.

"Right now we have a desolate piece of property being used for nothing more than parking space," Edward Flores, whose family has owned a cafe on Olvera Street for 80 years, told county supervisors. "It will beautify the area and finally bring in nightlife."

Olvera Street, near the Los Angeles River, is where the Spanish originally set up shop in 1781 during their colonization efforts. Today, the nonprofit La Plaza de Cultura y Artes Foundation operates a cultural center dedicated to Los Angeles' Mexican American history nearby. The foundation will lease the lots from the county for $1 and sublet them to the developer for $250,000 a year during construction and $400,000 or more annually thereafter, the Times reported.

Scott Bridges has covered the Los Angeles scene for over ten years as a journalist and food critic. Follow him on the Huffington Post