Affordable Housing Supporters to Hold Vigil

Housing advocates will hold a vigil at 5 p.m. today in front of the Julia Morgan YWCA building.

There are five pending proposals on the redevelopment of the building and for a nearby plot of land included in the project.

Last week, City Manager Steve Mermell announced that the City Council wanted affordable housing to be part of the winning proposal.

Not all of the finalists selected prior to Mermell’s announcement included affordable housing components in the plans they submitted.

“There are only two developers with proposals that specifically include affordable housing: National Core [National Community Renaissance] and Continental Assets,” said housing activist Anthony Manousos in an email to supporters. “We are supporting the National Core proposal because it is the only one with permanent supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness.”

During this Moral Monday vigil (named after Rev. Will Barber’s Moral Mondays in North Carolina), the group will hold up a banner advocating for homeless/affordable housing in the Civic Center, and share stories.

The event will also include a time of prayer and reflection in front of the Mack and Jackie Robinson statues in front of City Hall.

The site has been the subject of numerous development ideas since the City purchased it under eminent domain for $8.3 million in 2012 in order to preserve and restore it.

At that point, the 96-year-old structure had become dilapidated having fallen into serious disrepair after it changed ownership in 1996.

The five current proposals still include three without affordable housing at all.

Carpenter and Company of Boston’s pitch is for a full-service Four Seasons hotel at the YWCA site along with 25 luxury residences at the former Water and Power site.

Edgewood Realty Partners from nearby South Pasadena would see a 164-room boutique hotel operated by Palisociety and a 70,000 square foot, five-story office building is proposed for the Water and Power site.

New Orleans-based HRI Properties LLC would create a 179-room hotel, of which 165 rooms would be in a new 83,000-square-foot building adjacent to the YWCA. Their proposal didn’t specify what the Water & Power site would be used for.

The remaining included affordable housing in their initial proposals.

Continental Assets Management in Arcadia proposes a four-star 167 hotel room and either a five-story 120 room market-rate unit building or a six-story 139 affordable housing unit is proposed at the Water and Power site.

The Ratkovich Company with the National Community Renaissance in Los Angeles is proposing two alternatives for the YWCA and housing on the second site.

The first YWCA alternative would call for rehabbing the building for office space.

The second option calls for the rehabilitation of the building with construction of a new 59,000 square foot office building, or rehabbing the building and building a 142-room hotel.

On the PWP property, permanent supportive housing or permanent supportive housing and 15,000 square feet of leasable office space is proposed by Ratkovich.

“We are researching all these possibilities so we can be prepared,” Manousos said.