Funds OKd for Apartments at Entertainment Complex Site
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A large North Hollywood apartment complex aimed at attracting entertainment industry professionals moved a step closer to reality Monday when a Los Angeles City Council committee approved its financing.
The 248-unit Lincoln Academy Village Apartments would be part of an ambitious 25-acre complex of offices and retail stores in the heart of North Hollywood’s redevelopment district. The cornerstone of the venture would be the headquarters of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Plan Submitted
Under a plan submitted to the Community Redevelopment and Housing Committee, the apartments--planned for the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Blakeslee Avenue--would be completed in 1992.
Developers of the project are applying for $23 million in state bonds to build the apartments. They need approval of the full City Council before they can submit their application to the state.
An agreement reached earlier this month with the Community Redevelopment Agency calls for 20% of the units--50 apartments--to be reserved for very low-income tenants for at least 15 years.
Very low-income is a category of people who make less than 50% of the Los Angeles median income. The estimated monthly rent on those units would be $425 for a two-bedroom apartment. Other apartments would rent for more than twice that amount.
Councilwoman Gloria Molina, who heads the council committee, complained that the city should have required the developers to set aside more low-income units for a longer period of time.
Originally, the partnership behind the project--which includes Japanese and local investors-- pledged to reserve 50 apartments for twice as long--30 years. But those units would have been rented to low-income tenants--whose income is less than 80% of median--instead of the very low-income category included in the more recent agreement. Rent was estimated at $570 a month.
State Bonds
CRA staff members explained that to obtain state-issue bonds for the project, the developers had to agree to accommodate the poorer tenants for the shorter period of time. Molina suggested that both requirements be imposed, leading to 100 less-expensive apartments. But staff said the project would be financially infeasible.
The compromise--suggested by Councilman Richard Alatorre--was an added stipulation that after 15 years the 50 very low-income units revert to low-income units for 15 more years, unless the developer can prove that meeting that requirement will cause him financial hardship.
Originally, the project was to include an eight-screen theater operated by United Artists near the planned visitors’ center and plaza. But in June, 1988, United Artists backed out of the project, causing the plaza to be scaled down.
The Lincoln Academy Village Ltd. Partnership bought the 2.3-acre site for the apartments from the CRA for $3 million.
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