PICO-UNION : Community Center Loan Approved

The city has approved a $3.3-million loan toward converting an Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center into a community center in Pico-Union.

The center will cost $5.2 million, said Madeline Janis, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center. CARECEN and the Los Angeles Community Design Center, a nonprofit housing developer, hope to get the additional $2 million from a federal tax-credit program for nonprofit ventures, Janis said.

Under the program, investors would get a tax credit for every dollar invested in the project. If this fails, the two agencies will apply for a low-interest bank loan, Janis said.

Plans call for the community center, at 1115 S. Alvarado St., to open in early 1994.

“This is like a dream,” said Carlos Vaquerano, CARECEN’s community relations director. “It is the first opportunity we’ve had to create something that will benefit the entire community.”

Ironically, the site was a privately run Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center. The former Alvarado Processing and Residential Center closed in 1990 because of zoning problems.

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