The YWCA Greater Los Angeles recently secured a final piece of financing for a proposed new facility at 1020 S. Olive Street in the South Park district of Downtown, where the non-profit organization plans to build a seven-story Job Corps Urban Campus to provide employment training, placement services, and a residential dormitory for as many as 400 area youths.
Officials of the organization said they also plan to consolidate a number of its housing and social services programs — currently scattered across six sites — at the new facility. The 155,000-square-foot building will feature a commercial kitchen for culinary training, a dining hall, classrooms, and a healthcare facility. Four floors will be dedicated to 200 dormitory-style rooms, lounges, laundry facilities, and study rooms, according to representatives of the organization. The building also will feature a gated entry and 24-hour security, they added.
Initial funding for the project came late last year through in the form of an $82-milion grant for a 20-year-lease on the property under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the federal stimulus package. The more recent piece of financing for construction of the project came more recently through New Markets Tax Credits, a federal initiative intended to promote economic development in low-income communities. Tax credits are sold through various programs nationwide.
Investors purchase the credits to be used against federal tax obligations, and money raised through such sales goes to provide low-cost financing for developers to build qualified projects.
The Los Angeles Development Fund, which is managed by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), sold a portion of the tax credits that helped finance the YWCA project. Other sellers of the tax credits on the deal include the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a non-profit group that seeks to aid development in low-income areas; Enterprise Community Investment Inc., a non-profit organization with a similar mission; and Bank of America.
Among the entities that purchased the tax credits for the project are JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which played a dual role in the deal.
The YWCA Greater Los Angeles campus is the first project to receive funding from the Los Angeles Development Fund.
"These funds have made it possible for the YWCA to move forward on a project that will bring housing, training, and much-needed services to the people of our community and Los Angeles as a whole," said 9th District Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry, who represents the South Park district and much of the rest of Downtown.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lauded the tax-credits program for making the project possible.
"This is not just the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility," Villaraigosa said. "This is the creation of an educational haven that will provide hundreds of young men and women with the job training they need for a stable, successful future."
YWCA Greater Los Angeles purchased the site on Olive Street in 2004 for a total of $3.5 million, with aid from CRA/LA.
The recent sales of tax credits put the final pieces of construction financing in place for the new campus, according to Faye Washington, chief executive officer of the YWCA Greater Los Angeles.
"The YWCA had funds in place to support the project, [and] the New Market Tax Credit structure allowed us to close the gaps as well as offer a platform for community-minded corporations to participate in a project that will benefit Los Angeles youth for generations to come." Washington said. "We applaud the entities that went beyond rhetoric to provide funding that will have generational impact."
Sam Hassan is a writer for the L.A. Garment & Citizen.
Images from the YWCA Greater Los Angeles website.
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