Groundbreaking for new Costco store with 800 apartments units in Baldwin Village
SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Crews broke ground Wednesday on a new Costco store that will also bring affordable housing to Los Angeles. The development will be the first of its kind in the country.
Developer Thrive Living plans to use a five-acre site near Coliseum Street and La Brea Avenue in the Baldwin Village neighborhood to build 5035 Coliseum - a mixed-use complex that features the members-only warehouse store and residential rental units.
The retail-housing project will feature 800 apartment units above the new Costco - 184 of those units will be dedicated for low-income households.
The remaining units will be offered as non-subsidized affordable and workforce housing - all of which will eligible for residents with Section 8 vouchers.
"It's about the new wave of resources, a new pharmacy, new health care access that this project will bring to the community and that has the potential to make generational impact on this neighborhood," said L.A. Mayor Karen Bass during the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday.
Thrive Living says that the new state-of-the art Costco will have fresh produce, healthy food options, optical services, a pharmacy and delivery services to help local businesses.
The project is the first mixed-use development in the country to have Costco as its anchor retail tenant.
"5035 Coliseum is the first new housing community in Los Angeles to move forward under state law AB 2011, which helps streamline approvals for apartment and mixed-use projects that include low-income housing," Thrive Living said in a press release.
The developer calls the project a game-changer and says it will create thousands of new jobs.
"It created an accelerated path to getting this done. I don't know if we'd be here today, or even in the future, if it wasn't for this assembly bill," said Jordan Brill with Thrive Living. "This assembly bill is designed to create jobs, to create housing and to create quality retail."
Despite the jobs it will bring, some community members have expressed concerns that it will impact traffic and parking in the area and contribute to gentrification.
"I think the biggest thing that we had to conquer... was making sure that it was affordable so that the people who live here can stay here," said Gina Fields, Chairperson of Empowerment Congress West Area. "Being able to overcome that challenge, and having Thrive and Costco work with us to overcome that challenge, has been a big, big, big thing in our community. Because everybody is concerned about being displaced."
Officials don't' have a firm timeline for the project but once construction starts, it'll take about two and a half years to complete.
