33 live/work artist studios planned in South Central LA

3761 South Hill Street
3761 South Hill Street

Calling all Angeleno artists — this could be your shot at cheap studio living.

Plans were filed Friday for 33 live/work studio units in South Central L.A., according to city planning documents. The project calls for the conversion of two industrial office buildings at 3761 South Hill Street, just east of the 110 Freeway.

The zoning change request was filed by Hamid Razipour under the entity Hard Property, LLC. It calls for “joint living and work quarters for artists and artisans.”

Razipour, according to his LinkedIn profile, is the president of car stereo store SOS Electronics on South Central Avenue.

The industrial structures total 32,450 square feet on a 1.5-acre lot. Hard Property acquired the buildings for $9.2 million in 2015, property records show. David Gadoshian, a CPA listed on public records as an agent of Hard Property, declined to comment on the new plans.

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The advent of artists in this historically working-class neighborhood is perhaps the perfect testimonial to its gentrification. Gallery 38, for instance, opened just last year on West Adams Boulevard.

Some longtime residents are apprehensive about the community’s growing home prices and changing demographics. Up the road on Broadway the $1 billion project the Reef only recently cleared the planning commission after protests from members of the community, who argued the 1.7-million-square-foot development would catalyze unwanted gentrification.

“The people that have lived here the longest can’t afford to live here,” Sandra Pruitt, who represents Jefferson Park on the neighborhood council, told the L.A. Times last week. “It’s interesting, once the color of the people changes, [the developers] want to start investing.”

Still, rents are low — at least for now. Last year, the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in South Central L.A. rang in at $930, compared to $2,380 in DTLA, according to an April report from renting site, Zumper.