Goldfin Ventures Eyes Affordable Housing in South LA

Goldfin Ventures wants to replace a shuttered church in Historic South-Central with a 92-unit affordable housing complex.

The Saratoga-based developer led by Vinu Krishnamurthy has filed plans to build the five-story complex at 665 East Adams Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The 74-year-old church building that once served as the home of Spiritual Fellowship Church would be demolished.

Plans call for an apartment building with 92 studio and one-bedroom apartments with no on-site parking. Except for a market-rate manager’s unit, all the apartments would be set aside as affordable for low- and moderate-income households.

The developer seeks a streamlined approval through Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1, which fast-tracks entitlements for affordable housing.

The charcoal and white building, designed by Mountain View-based Metropolis Architecture, would be built on a nearly third-acre site behind a strip mall. It would include two courtyards and a small rear yard.

Goldfin bought the church property in June last year from Spiritual Fellowship Church for $1.3 million, according to city records cited by Urbanize. It had been listed for $2 million as a redevelopment property, according to Redstone Realty Group.

The 2,000-square-foot Spiritual Fellowship Church, a cream-colored sanctuary topped by a green roof, was built in 1950.

It was opened the following year by fireman Horace Green and his wife, the Reverend Norma Nelson, who soon added its white metal cross outlined in neon, according to an Adams Boulevard blog.

Goldfin Ventures, based in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2018 and run by Krishnamurthy, an IT specialist and co-founder of Swish io, a customized video streaming firm based in San Francisco, according to state business records and his LinkedIn page.

— Dana Bartholomew