CIM buys former church property in West Adams to build 168 apartments

CIM Group has bought a former church in West Adams whose property has been approved for  168 apartments.

The Mid-Wilshire-based developer bought the 1.3-acre church property at 3045 Crenshaw Boulevard for an undisclosed price, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. The seller was West Angeles Church of Christ. The former sanctuary will be razed.

Plans call for a mixed-use, 168-unit apartment complex with 17 affordable units for low-income tenants. The entitled, six-story project includes 40,000 square feet of ground-level shops and restaurants.

The deal is the latest in a long-running partnership between CIM and the West Angeles Church of God in Christ. The Pentecostal megachurch in 1999 moved its 1,000-seat house of worship at 3045 Crenshaw to a 5,000-seat West Angeles Cathedral at 3600 Crenshaw Boulevard.

The new development will rise just north of Jefferson Boulevard in West Adams, which has dining, shops, entertainment and services. Future residents will have easy access to the Metro E Line rail station on Crenshaw Boulevard, which connects to Downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica. 

CIM Principal Shaul Kuba and West Angeles Church Bishop Charles Blake Sr. joined forces two decades ago with the goal of bringing new development to Crenshaw Boulevard, between Jefferson and West Adams boulevards. 

The latest land sale is part of the church’s long-planned property dispositions, announced in 2019, to bring new developments to the neighborhood.

Proceeds will help support church programs, including construction of a Family Life Center, which includes a chapel, banquet hall, classrooms, media center, counseling center and administrative offices at the West Angeles Cathedral.

Kuba, a co-founder of CIM Group, is remaking the scrappy Los Angeles neighborhood to his vision, Bloomberg reported last May. But while he says he’s “merchandising” West Adams after decades of decay, others see it as neighborhood flipping – or gentrification.

CIM is now developing 40 properties in West Adams – at once. That includes construction of 15 new buildings, two to six stories high, with glass storefronts at street level and as many as 170 apartments above. Another CIM mixed-use project calls for 74 units.

In December, The Real Deal outlined how CIM employed an Opportunity Zone strategy in West Adams to get federal tax breaks – by selling properties to itself.

— Dana Bartholomew