SOUTH-CENTRAL : $56.5 Million OKd for Redevelopment Plan

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a $56.5-million redevelopment project for the Broadway-Manchester area that will include a commercial center and housing development for senior citizens.

The commercial center will be built on the southwest corner of Broadway and Manchester Avenue, said Roy Willis, the Community Redevelopment Agency’s director of operations. Construction of the center, up to 200,000 square feet, is set to begin in early 1996.

A 65-unit apartment complex is planned for senior citizens at 94th Street and Broadway, next to an additional 15,000 square feet of retail space.

The 180-acre redevelopment area is bounded by the Harbor (110) Freeway on the west, 84th Street on the north, Central Avenue on the east and 102nd Street on the south.

To ensure community interests were not undermined, officials said, the CRA worked closely with Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, local merchants, residents and community leaders to draft the plan.

The Rev. Will T. Washington, who helped draft the plan, said the 21-member advisory committee was seeking development of a supermarket, movie theater and a strip of specialty shops such as a dry cleaners, a pharmacy, a Laundromat, a bookstore and a hardware store.

Part of the proposal is to coordinate a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus route for the site.

The primary source of financing will be a tax increment specifically for the redevelopment project. Other funds will come from the city and from investors, project manager Oscar Jauregui said.