[Dirt lot image via blogdowntown, rendering via Jenkins/Gales & Martinez]
The YWCA of Greater Los Angeles announced today that it has received an $82 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant and will finally break ground on its Urban Campus in South Park. That project has been a looooong time coming: blogdowntown reports the group purchased the land in late 2003, and a 2004 story says just acquiring the land took two years. Back then, the project was estimated at $40 million. At the end of 2005, the Downtown News reported that a groundbreaking was coming in the first quarter of 2006 on the then-$49 million project. Back then the plan was for a "striking glass and steel structure" by Onyx Architects. At the end of 2007, angelenic listed it as one of the "Anticipated Major Ground-Breakings in 2008."
So maybe we shouldn't be writing about this before we've seen dirt fly, but the YWCA says the project will be completed by 2011.
Blogdowntown reports the parking lot at the site is already gone and there is that $82 million (it's for a 20 year lease), so we're feeling good about this one. The campus on Olive Street between Olympic and Eleventh will include a seven story building with 100 dorm rooms (for 400 students), classrooms, a cafeteria, a library, offices, and healthcare services. There's also a courtyard with outdoor amphitheater. The overall Urban Campus Master Plan also includes commercial/retail space and affordable housing. Some of the students in the YWCA's Job Corps program will participate in the construction.
· YWCA Greater Los Angeles Earns $82 Million Labor Department Stimulus Grant to Fund Job Corps Campus Housing [PR Newswire]
· YWCA Breaking Ground in South Park After Receiving $82 Million in Federal Funds [blogdowntown
· Jenkins/Gales & Martinez [Official Site]
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