LITTLE TOKYO : Union Church Will House Asian Arts

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a 44-year lease that allows a local partnership group to turn the historic city-owned Union Church on San Pedro Street into an Asian arts center.

“We’re real excited,” said Erich Nakano, project manager for Little Tokyo Service Center. “The project will really contribute to revitalizing Little Tokyo and the cultural life of Downtown and the region.”

The social service center and Visual Communications, an Asian American media organization, formed the Old Union Church General Partnership two years ago in the hope of developing the three-story church at 120 N. San Pedro St., Nakano said.

Called the Asian Pacific Arts Center, the 9,000-square-foot brick building will house Visual Communications and L.A. Artcore, a museum featuring emerging artists, as well as East West Players, one of the leading Asian American theater companies in the country, Nakano said.

The lease agreement requires the partnership to pay $1 a year to the city. In exchange, the group will spend $4.9 million to renovate and seismically retrofit the building, which was in the Northridge quake, Nakano said.

Funding for the remodeling project will come from federal and local agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. It could open as early as fall, 1996.

Built in 1923 and known as the oldest Christian church in Little Tokyo, Union Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was purchased by the city in 1978 after congregation members moved to their present site at 401 E. 3rd St.