Swap Meets Everyone’s Needs : Home Depot Relocates Children’s Club Across Street So That It Can Use Center’s Former Site

Youngsters playing at a Hollywood child-care center were understandably nervous when the new kid on the block unexpectedly showed up at their door.

Knocking to get in was Home Depot, the giant home improvement chain that was planning to build a new store down the street.

The company had bought up the rest of the block as space for the store. But now it needed a final parcel--the spot where the Hollywood Children’s Club has been for the last 55 years--for its parking lot.

It didn’t take long for company planners to realize they couldn’t kick the 180 latchkey children who use the after-school center onto the street. So the company suggested an unusual land swap with the Assistance League of Southern California, which operates the nonprofit club.

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And on Wednesday the children got their first look at the results: a new $4.4-million center across the street that duplicates the old Children’s Club, right down to the cozy library fireplace that has warmed generations of youngsters.

“I’ll be a little sorry to see the other place go,” said 10-year-old Carlos Morales as he glanced across De Longpre Avenue toward the faded brick building where he has spent his afternoons for three years.

“But this place is bigger and better. And the basketball courts here are the best,” said his brother, Eduardo, 12, surveying the new building’s shiny new activity rooms.

Home Depot purchased five lots and demolished four old apartment buildings to make room for the new children’s center. The youngsters’ relocation is helping push the cost of the new Sunset Boulevard store to $20 million--making it the company’s most expensive Los Angeles outlet when it opens in about nine months.

As it is, rooftop parking will be required at the new store, said Home Depot real estate executive Greg George. “We couldn’t have done it without using the [Children’s Club] site for parking. We wouldn’t have gone through condemnation proceedings,” he said.

Assistance League officials said their new building has slightly more floor space than the old one. That means 50 more children from a waiting list of about 300 can be accommodated.

Youngsters ages 5 to 14 are eligible for the service, which caters to children whose mothers work. The program is subsidized for low-income families. Along with supervised homework sessions, it offers sports activities and instruction in things like dance, drama and cooking.

Children from 29 countries are currently enrolled. Some of them dressed in native costumes to sing to a crowd of 300 at Wednesday’s opening.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg praised the land exchange, with Goldberg predicting to the crowd that the new clubhouse “is going to change lives dramatically.”

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Assistance League administrator Cathy Wilmore drew applause when she described the new building as “the castle children dream of.” She said the relocation will allow the Children’s Club to continue being “a safe haven for children . . . an alternative to gangs.”

But the biggest hand went to 11-year-old club member Angel Moreno. He explained that he and his 6-year-old brother, Jimmy, attend the program while their mother, Ana Moreno, works as a housekeeper.

“When she’s working she knows we’re safe,” Angel said. “. . . Thank you, Mom.”