Los Angeles County Supervisors Vote on Hospital Project

The Los Angeles County General Medical Center is set for a $120 million overhaul to turn it into the heart of a new health-oriented community.

County supervisors are poised to approve an initial $3.3 million in funding for Centennial Partners’ plans for Boyle Heights hospital, The Los Angeles Times reported. It would be the first step in bringing the project to life, a year and a half after Centennial secured an exclusive negotiating agreement for the property.

Under the plan, the nearly century-old main 19-story Art Deco building, formerly known as Los Angeles County General Hospital, and the adjacent 41.9-acre campus will be transformed into a community-oriented space with affordable housing and medical offices as well as retail and other services. Up to 824 residential units are planned for the mixed-use site, though more have been proposed in past iterations.

Centennial, in a joint venture with Primestor Venture Partners, has been granted an authorization for $120 million to dedicate toward remediation. That includes funds totaling $106 million largely coming from state housing grants and the federal American Rescue Plan. The remaining $9 million would be held in contingency and $5 million reserved for county management.

Previously, Centennial proposed as many as 1,480 to 4,954 mixed-income residential units and between 2.1 million and 4.6 million square feet of commercial space. The preliminary plan, issued in February, forms the basis of a more detailed master plan and environmental report that Centennial is looking to complete by early next year.

The Board of Supervisors motion for the $3.3 million in funding would also authorize county staff to seek inclusion of the iconic building on the National Register of Historic Places. For more than 60 years, the structure has been featured in the opening credits of the soap opera “General Hospital.” If it makes the Register, the hospital project would receive additional tax credits to fund construction and preservation.

The redevelopment won’t come without its challenges, the Times reported. Planners will have to investigate how to mitigate seismic risk, hazardous materials contamination, crumbling infrastructure, old and inefficient buildings, parking shortcomings, disconnected streets, fragmented green spaces and updates to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Initial remedial work on the unoccupied floors of the hospital building is expected to begin in December. Major work will reportedly start in the spring after the master plan and draft environmental impact report are completed.— Chris Malone Méndez