Council Wants Affordable Housing as Part of YWCA Project

Finalists’ proposals for the City’s dilapidated YWCA building will have to include an affordable housing element to their proposals.

On Monday, City Manager Steve Mermell reported that the Council gave him that direction during a closed session meeting on the YWCA on Thursday.

“Last week staff received direction from the City Council regarding the price and terms of payment as to proposals for the redevelopment of the YWCA building and the Civic Center,” Mermell said at Monday’s City Council meeting. “Specifically, the council made it clear that it wishes to see some form of affordable housing as part of any development in the Civic Center and to return with an analysis of the impact that may have on the price.”

According to Mermell the project could come back to the City Council in February and then there will be an opportunity for community engagement on the proposals.

Mermell said, “Staff is working as directed.”

The city is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis.

As of last Wednesday, there five proposals were being reviewed for the YWCA property.

The proposals included a 125-150 full-service Four Seasons hotel at the YWCA site along with 25 luxury residences at the former Water and Power site by Carpenter and Company of Boston.

Continental Assets Management in Arcadia proposed a four-star 167 hotel room, 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.

A proposal by 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 Ratkovich Company with the National Community Renaissance in Los Angeles is proposing two alternatives.

The first 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.