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By Veronica Mackey
Is living above a major retail store the way to affordable housing?
Costco thinks so, and plans to build 184 low income apartments out of 800 planned units above its future retail location It is the first to receive approval under Assembly Bill 2011 or the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act. The 2023 California law speeds up the approval process for projects that meet affordability and labor criteria. The first Costco apartment complex will be built in Baldwin Hills. Partnering with real estate developer Thrive Living, the project is expected to start in early 2025.
The ambitious project, to be built at 5035 Coliseum, is expected to cost $425 million, and Thrive Living founder Ben Shaoul wants to build thousands more across the U.S. He told the Wall Street Journal that Costco will pay rent for the space and the income will help his company be less dependent on government subsidies. Work is expected to conclude in 2027.
According to a Thrive Living, the complex will create thousands of jobs, and opening the Costco will create up to 400 new jobs.
The soon-to-be-built apartments will bring down rental rates to levels unseen in the Los Angeles area in recent years. According to the Globe and Mail, the project in Los Angeles is combining market-rate housing with dedicated affordable housing. Units designated for low-income housing with monthly rent plus utilities are set at $1,040 and available to families earning $41,610 per year.
By contrast, apartments at the new Demilo apartments, located at 201 N. La Brea Avenue in Inglewood, sitting atop ground floor commercial space, start at $2,500 for a studio. Two bedrooms can go as high as $3,912 per month. The apartment building, developed by Thomas Safran & Associates, is situated right across the street from Target Astral, with some views of the Inglewood Courthouse.
Inglewood residents were furious reading the Instagram post by EyeonInglewood. One woman commented that the studio price was “more than (her) HOA and mortgage put together.” Another woman wants “the old Inglewood back…the one I grew up in.”
At those prices, one might expect, at minimum, clean streets and sidewalks. But according to one IG user, this is not the case. “Between the urine and feces around their perimeter it’s gross. And by all means please do not leave any dead rodents out for 2 months or more either like they did near the target entrance. Great convenience for some, terrible for those of us who work and have children that attend school in that area it’s a mess.”
Generally most Inglewood residents don’t feel that new housing springing up in the city is for them. Hopefully other large retailers will step up and take advantage of provisions in AB 2011 to bring more affordable housing to Inglewood.
