Lorena Plaza topped out at 3401 E. 1st Street in Boyle Heights

Just west of the A Line's Indiana Station in Boyle Heights, vertical construction is complete for Lorena Plaza, a new affordable housing complex non-profit developer A Community of Friends.

Located on a Metro-owned site at 1st and Lorena Streets, the project consists of a four-story building that will feature 49 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above roughly 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The apartments will serve a mix of veterans, unhoused individuals and families, and general low-income renters.

GGA+ is designing Lorena Plaza, which is portrayed in a rendering as a contemporary low-rise structure. Plans show that the building would include landscaped interior courtyards, a children's play area, a computer room, a fitness center, and offices for case management staff.

3401 E 1st StreetGoogle Maps

At the time the project broke ground, Lorena Plaza was expected to debut in 2024.

While construction may be proceeding now, the road to the project's November 2022 groundbreaking was a 10-year journey, largely due to an extended standoff between A Community of Friends and the owners of El Mercado, a neighboring marketplace and commercial center, who had sought to block construction of the project. El Mercado's fight was buoyed by support from former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who alleged that the project team had failed to generate support within the surrounding neighborhood. ACOF eventually agreed to make changes to the project, and Huizar dropped his objections to the project.

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