Construction goes vertical for affordable housing at at 232 Judge John Aiso St. in Little Tokyo

Six months after starting work in Little Tokyo, construction has gone vertical for a new mixed-use development featuring affordable housing and commercial space, with the arrival of a red tower crane.

Go for Broke Plaza and First Street North Residences, a mixed-use project from Little Tokyo Service Center, is rising from what was previously a surface parking lot next to the Japanese American National Museum at 232 Judge John Aiso Street. Plans call for 248 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, including 80 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans, who would have easy access to a VA facility across the street.

Rendering of Go For Broke Plaza and First Street North ResidencesLittle Tokyo Service Center

The apartments will cater to households earning between 30 and 80 percent of the Los Angeles area median income level, per a Housing Department staff report.

The mixed-use project is being built in partnership with the Go For Broke National Education Center, which will establish a permanent exhibition focused on the experiences of Japanese-American soldiers during World War II within the building. The courtyard at the main entrance to the complex will incorporate the existing Go For Broke monument, which pays tribute to the soldiers of the 100th/442nd Regimental combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service. "Go For Broke" served as the regiment's motto.

Carde Ten is designing contemporary low-rise development, which will consist of two six-story buildings featuring 40,000 square feet of street-level commercial space. LTSC will give preference to legacy Little Tokyo small businesses and organizations when leasing out the ground floor, coming after the eviction of local mainstays such as Suehiro Cafe.

Work to redevelop the project site has been ongoing for roughly two decades, starting from when the property was first identified as a future home for Go For Broke's education center. While the standalone project never made it to construction, it was later resurrected as a component of the larger project with LTSC.

View looking east from Judge John Aiso StreetUrbanize LA

The First Street North site is one of several public properties in Little Tokyo which are likely to be up for redevelopment in the coming years, including the former home of Parker Center, the Mangrove property across Alameda Street and the land surrounding the Little Tokyo/Arts District subway station.

The complex is one of four under construction developments for LTSC, joining a 53-unit building now rising in Chinatown, a mixed-use complex next to Metro's Vermont/Santa Monica Station, and a development which replaced the former home of the Umeya Rice Cake Company.

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