Los Angeles LGBT Center’s $118 million, Anita May Rosenstein Campus expansion is underway

This artist rendering is looking north at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and McCadden Place, the site of the LA LGBT Center’s huge, $118 million expansion. The Anita May Rosenstein Campus will include 100 units of affordable housing for seniors, 100 beds for homeless youth, new senior and youth centers, and up to 35 units of permanent supportive housing for young people. The mixed-use complex will also contain ground floor retail spaces. The project is being built at 1116 N. McCadden Place and expands the footprint and services of the center’s The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, which is directly across the street and has movie theaters, art galleries, offices and meeting spaces. Photo: LA LGBT Center.

HOLLYWOOD — Construction official began earlier this month, but Los Angeles LGBT Center officials will ceremonially break ground Saturday for a huge, $118 million campus that will offer comprehensive, multi-generational services and cover more than a city block.

The Anita May Rosenstein Campus will have 100 units of affordable housing for seniors, 100 beds for homeless youth, new senior and youth centers, and up to 35 units of permanent supportive housing for young people. The mixed-use complex will also contain ground floor retail spaces.

The project is being built at 1116 N. McCadden Place and expands the footprint and services of the center’s The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, which is directly across the street and has movie theaters, art galleries, offices and meeting spaces.

COMMUNITY NEED

The Center says the size of the project reflects the need:

Saturday’s groundbreaking will take place at 10 a.m.

“Nearly a decade ago, we began to dream of a project unlike any other — a beautiful multi-generational campus with new and expanded social services, together with affordable housing for seniors and youth,” Center CEO Lorri L. Jean said in a press statement. “More than that, we dreamed of uniting it with The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, our arts, cultural and educational facility.

“Combined, the two locations will offer more integrated services for LGBT people than any other place in the world,” she said.

NEW HEADQUARTERS

About $35 million of the $118 million price tag already has been pledged in a capital fundraising campaign, including more than $9 million is federal tax credits, the center said in the same statement. About $45 million will be paid with affordable housing funding streams. The remaining amount will be paid with a mortgage.

The Rosenstein Campus also will become the center’s new headquarters. The center’s headquarters on Schrader Boulevard will become a health and medical facility.

Rosenstein, the great-granddaughter of David May, founder of the May Department Stores Co., gave the center a $7 million donation in 2014 when the nonprofit announced its expansion and fundraising campaign.

This artist rendering shows an eastern view, looking across McCadden Place toward The Anita May Rosenstein Campus. The mixed-use complex will also contain ground floor retail spaces. The project is being built at 1116 N. McCadden, directly across the street from the LA LGBT Center’s The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, which has movie theaters, art galleries, offices and meeting spaces. Photo: LA LGBT Center.

About the author

Phillip Zonkel

Award-winning journalist Phillip Zonkel spent 17 years at Long Beach's Press-Telegram, where he was the first reporter in the paper's history to have a beat covering the city's vibrant LGBTQ. He also created and ran the popular and innovative LGBTQ news blog, Out in the 562.

He won two awards and received a nomination for his reporting on the local LGBTQ community, including a two-part investigation that exposed anti-gay bullying of local high school students and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protections for LGBTQ students.

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