The Los Angeles Urban League has unveiled plans to completely revamp the entire area known as the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, which includes the Crenshaw Mall.
After the Crenshaw Line light rail project is finished in 2019 it will have a direct pathway into the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza (BCHP). In order to meet deadlines, the BHCP is planning a large and dramatic overhaul of construction to make the 43-acre site into an extravagant 24-hour community.
Building LA reports that mall owners are envisioning a 2 million square foot addition to the shopping center that will make way for retail space, offices, hotels, condos, and apartments.
Capri Capital Partners, developers and owners of the shopping center, are planning to incorporate a separate “pedestrian-oriented retail village” located where Stocker Street meets Crenshaw, it will have a combination of one- and two-story restaurants and stores collected around a wide pedestrian passageway that would connect shoppers to the mall.
The area will feature lavish landscaping, from the renderings, it looks very similar to a Grove-ish shopping center that you can almost hear the ambient music. Although, there are apparent pedestrian-friendly factors at work here, drivers shouldn’t fret as there will also be plenty of parking. Despite new subway access right in front of the shopping center, MLK Jr. Boulevard and Crenshaw, there will be 7,000 parking spots split between the two sections of the site.
At Santa Rosalia and Stocker, developers have planned for a 12-story hotel tower with 400 rooms. The hotel’s plaza floor will lead to the retail village and would allow for a smooth connection between the two. The hotel will be a fairly standard-looking glassy rectangle with a blade of glass at each floor extending the length of the building. The hotel would also have a 74-car parking lot next to it, on the west side.
When it comes to the community itself and the people that reside in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area, many residents wonder how all of this will affect the community the day to day way of life.
Local resident and mother, Javona Wright, who is 52 years old and is from the neighborhoods by Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and 6th Avenue, attests to the local sentiment about the turnaround of the community that she has come to know and love. “This new community is needed,” she said.
She also noted her concerns over the empty, run-down lots along MLK Jr. Boulevard.
“A contemporary shopping plaza is just what we need to restore this community to its former glory”, said Wright.
