Kaiser Permanente Management enjoys Historic Jordan Downs Redevelopment Groundbreaking
"Where deterioration and devastation once reigned, a thriving and sustainable community will emerge," a project designer said.
Kaiser Permanente Management attended the Historic Jordan Downs Redevelopment Groundbreaking ceremony yesterday. Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center was acknowledged for their contribution to the Watts Community and support of the redevelopment project by both Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino.
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A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday for the first phase of the $1 billion redevelopment of the Jordan Downs public housing project in Watts.
The plan seeks to convert the 700-unit site into a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood of 1,410 units with 160,000 square feet retail space, nine acres of green space and a new recreation center.
The plan has been in the works for nearly a decade and was delayed due to funding shortages and the discovery that soil at part of the site was contaminated with lead and other toxins from its past use as a steel factory.
"We've got a housing crisis and we need to build more units, and that starts right here, right now, today,'' Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
About the soil contamination, Garcetti said the city wants to ensure everything is remediated before people move in.
The property owners have paid over $30 million toward that effort and said the city won't put people in new homes will old contaminated dirt, Garcetti said.
The "phase 1A" of the project will include 115 rental apartments in 12 buildings on 3.15 acres.
"It is truly an honor to be part of such a significant — and long overdue — project for the city of LA," said Ernesto M. Vasquez, CEO of SVA Architects, one of the designers of the project. "Where deterioration and devastation once reigned, a thriving and sustainable community will emerge."
