SoLa Impact plans to build 121-unit apartment complex in Harbor Gateway

SoLa Impact, a development firm lauded for investing in minority neighborhoods and sued for alleged poor conditions at its properties, has filed an application to build a 121-unit apartment complex in Los Angeles’ Harbor Gateway neighborhood.

The proposed multifamily complex is located at 110-112 West Imperial Highway and 11401-11402 S. Main Street, a few minutes drive from the interchange of the Harbor Freeway and Interstate 105. The project application was filed with the L.A. City Planning Division on July 12.

The project would consist of a new, five-story building that would replace three existing commercial buildings. According to the application, 12 units would be reserved as affordable housing and the others would rent at market rates.

Square footage for the one- and two-bedroom units was unspecified in the application. The building also would include 60 parking stalls.

In March, SoLa Impact was planning to break ground on a 195-unit multifamily complex called Crenshaw Lofts in the Park Mesa Heights neighborhood of South Los Angeles, according to media reports.

SoLa Impact started business in 2015 and holds the distinction of being Los Angeles’ largest Section 8 landlord. It owns and manages 1,500 apartments in South Los Angeles and plans on renovating 1,500 more, according to an undated statement on its website. Its projects also include The Beehive, a 100,000-square-foot compound which includes a business incubator for South Los Angeles entrepreneurs.

SoLa Impact and Martin Muoto, its chief executive officer and co-founder, have received accolades and investments because of the company’s pursuit of a profitable bottom line and adherence to the social mission of promoting housing in neglected neighborhoods. In 2020, TV personality Oprah Winfrey gave $1 million to SoLa Impact’s I Can Foundation for vocational training for South Los Angeles residents who were furloughed from their jobs during the pandemic.

In January, SoLA Impact received $25 million investment from PayPal to develop affordable housing in economically challenged minority neighborhoods. In March, the developer’s Black Impact Fund received a $50 million investment from the California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund.

PayPal and the California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund invested in the SoLa’s Black Impact Fund, which started in November 2019. The fund will only focus on building new, affordable housing in black and brown communities in Southern California. Unlike SoLa Impact’s prior funds, Black Impact Fund will not invest in rehabbing old buildings, said Gray Lusk, SoLa Impact’s chief operating officer.

The company has come under fire for its management of old buildings.

In the past year, SoLa Impact also has been the defendant in lawsuits alleging neglect of its buildings. Law firm Riley | Ersoff sued the company last year, alleging that its tenants had suffered health problems and property damage from bedbugs, cockroaches and rat infestation. The firm announced that the suit went to trial on July 12.

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