A mixed-use project on the border between the Arts District and Skid Row in Los Angeles has gained momentum under an infrastructure law backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) that passed last year.
Newsom is attempting to expedite $2 billion for a 7.6-acre project at 4th Street and Central Avenue, redeveloping a cold storage facility into residential, retail, and office buildings. Named Fourth & Central, the project would create 10 buildings consisting of 1,500 new homes, a 68-room hotel, and over 400,000 square feet of office space, retail shops, and restaurants. Newsom, on Thursday, said the project would funnel $2 billion into California’s economy and create up to 10,000 union jobs.
The governor is working to streamline the construction timeline through the state’s infrastructure law, which sets a 270-day limit on courts for finding any environmental challenges that are raised against a project.
The timeline and how state agencies approve large projects are often shaped by environmental policies in California, and the infrastructure law aims to speed up construction by “cutting red tape” — reducing the long, drawn-out legal challenges that have a common timeline of three to five years.
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“For decades, we’ve let red tape stand in the way of these kinds of critical housing projects — and the consequences are in plain view all around us,” Newsom said in a statement. “Now we’re using California’s infrastructure law to build more housing, faster.”
The project still has to pass an environmental review from the California Environmental Quality Act. The project needs authorization from the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles Times reported. If approved, the construction of Fourth & Central would start next year and take five to seven years to finish, according to Edgar Khalatian, an attorney with the firm Mayer Brown that is representing the Denver-based developers Continuum Partners who introduced the project in 2021.
