Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza plans massive expansion

A promotional display has popped up in the middle of the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza mall. On it are pretty renderings that depict what one developer hopes the downtrodden mall can transform into. The revitalization project, which is still in early planning stages, hopes to add 2.5m sf of retail, residential, office, and hotel to the existing 1m sf mall. The new mall would resemble more of an "urban village" with pedestrian pathways and access to the planned Crenshaw corridor lightrail.

In the CEQA "Notice of Preparation" document compiled by the CRA, the plan calls for 1.8m sf of retail/entertainment, 150k sf office, a 400 room hotel and about 1000 dwelling units. The majority of the newly constructed buildings would be built on what are now surface parking lots, and all parking would be concentrated in two large structures at the southwest corner of the site. From the looks of the proposed site plan, the developer is aiming for an LA Live South, complete with "public plazas," restaurants, and an "entertainment district." This will be an ambitious, even dubious, feat. Rios Clementi Hale Studios prepared the initial architectural designs. The developer is Capri Capital Partners of Chicago, who has owned the property since 2006.

The LA Sentinel reports that support for the mall addition is strong in the local area, likely because it will add investment and jobs to a part of the city that has long lacked both. But projects of this magnitude rarely get off the ground in the current economic climate, and unfortunately this project's location poses a huge hurdle to its financial feasibility. LA Live barely scraped through on its final phases, and that was with lots of public money and a pre-recession groundbreaking. The Grand Avenue project, one of the largest and most exclusive mixed-use proposals out there, is on the back burner and running out of steam. But perhaps Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza can take advantage of its under-market status. When Macy's moved out of the historic Broadway department store building in the late 1990s, Wal-Mart was quick to fill the void, and remain's the only Wal-Mart in Los Angeles and the only 3-story Wal-Mart. Developers must be careful to improve the center in a lucrative and prestigious way, while preserving the African-American identity and pride of place the mall has come to embrace.