First senior housing units delivered at abandoned hospital
The former nurses’ residence building at a long-abandoned hospital in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles has been converted to housing for low-income seniors, and more units are coming.
Completion of the $8.9-million project by Amcal Multi-Housing Inc. this week marks the end of the first phase of the affordable housing developer’s plan to turn Linda Vista Community Hospital on South St. Louis Street into senior housing.
The hospital, which closed in 1991, dates from the early 20th century when it was founded to treat employees of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, one of the country’s largest railroads.
In recent years, the main six-story complex has been a popular site for filming movies and television shows, including the pilot episode of “ER.”
The adjacent three-story nurses’ dormitory has been remade into 23 units, said Percival Vaz, chief executive of Amcal. The conversion of the main hospital building to 93 units should begin in November and be completed by summer 2015.
The hospital is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a city historical monument. The total cost of the renovation will be about $40 million.
“We are preserving all the historic nature of the hospital,” Vaz said, “and trying to restore the exterior to how it originally looked.”
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