CRA/LA putting Angels Landing and Bethune Library sites up for grabs

The failure of two pre-pandemic proposals for mixed-use developments will mean that two marquee sites controlled by CRA/LA are to be declared as surplus land and put up for grabs.

Across the street from USC in Exposition Park, CRA/LA owns the former Bethune Library site, a currently vacant lot at 3685 S. Vermont Avenue. Under an option agreement, the City of Los Angeles had led the effort to redevelop the property, and had selected a submission from developer Orion Capital to build a 168-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel on the property.

That project, which had the support of City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, faced pushback from members of the City family itself. Both the City's Zoning Administrator and South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission declined to approve the project, leading to the City Council to assert jurisdiction and authorize its construction. That move prompted a lawsuit  from Strategic Actions for a Just Economy seeking to force the city to rescind entitlements for the Bethune site, eventually stalling the proposal.

A few miles north in Downtown Los Angeles, CRA/LA is set to do the same with the Bunker Hill Y-1 Parcel - a hillside property located at the northwest corner of Hill and 4th Streets. As with the Bethune Library site, CRA/LA and the City of Los Angeles had forged an agreement in which the City would be responsible for leading the development process.

In 2017, the City's request for proposals process landed on a joint submission by MacFarlane Partners and the Peebles Corporation, which called for redeveloping the property with a mixed-use, high-rise complex dubbed Angels Landing. Plans had called for buildings standing 64 and 42 stories in height, featuring more than 400 homes, two hotels, and commercial space.

While a declaration of the site as surplus land may be the final nail in the coffin, Angels Landing has been off the table for several years at this point. The developers publicly sparred with former Councilmember Kevin de Leon, who represented Downtown on the City Council prior to being unseated by current Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, and would later sue the City over the scuttled project.

With the City's option agreements for both sites having expired on September 30, CRA/LA is now required by state law to declare the properties as surplus land, which means it will be first offered to developers of affordable housing over a 60-day period. Should developers not respond to those offers, or if negotiations fail to yield a suitable agreement, the properties can be marketed more widely.

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