L.A. County Supes sign off on $72.4M for Vermont-Manchester development

In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the release of approximately $72.4 million on bond financing to developer BRIDGE Housing Corporation for the construction of new affordable housing at the Vermont-Manchester development in South Los Angeles.

The project, named for its location at the intersection of Vermont and Manchester Avenues, would consist of two separate apartment buildings on a single property owned by Los Angeles County. The first, called "The Family Building," would consist of 118 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments reserved for households earning between 30 and 80 percent of the Los Angeles area median income. The second, named "The Senior Project," would feature 62 one-bedroom dwellings set aside for older adults earning up to 30 percent of the area median income.

The vote by the Supervisors approved approximately $6.3 million for the family development, and roughly $26.9 million for the senior project. Separately, the Board also approved revised terms of the project's ground lease and developer agreement.

TCA Architects is designing the development, which will also include a public boarding school, SEED LA, which is being built separately from the apartments.

Construction of the new affordable comes more than four years after Los Angeles County initiated the process of purchasing the Vermont-Manchester site, which had been vacant since the 1992 uprising in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. For years prior to that, the land had been owned by Eli Sasson, who had long promised to develop the property with a shopping complex, but had yet to follow through more than two years after holding a ceremonial groundbreaking.

BRIDGE Housing's other ongoing projects include new affordable developments in Long Beach, Koreatown, and Pasadena, as well as the revamp of the Jordan Downs complex in Watts.