WW II-Era Public Housing Redo Advances in Los Angeles

The redevelopment of Rancho San Pedro, a Los Angeles owned public housing complex that dates back to WW II, finally is moving forward—with 1,553 new homes slated for nine-city-block wide project.

One San Pedro Collaborative—a partnership of The Richman Group, based in Connecticut; Rancho Cucamonga-based National CORE; and Century Housing of Culver City which the city selected in 2018 to redevelop the 80-year-old garden apartment public housing project—has filed an entitlement application to get the ball rolling.

According to a report in Urbanize Los Angeles, the developers are planning to redevelop Rancho San Pedro, which is in proximity to the Port of Los Angeles, with a mixed-use development. The current public housing complex has 478 two-story apartment buildings on 21 acres adjacent to Santa Cruz, Third, Mesa and Beacon streets.

The new community will include market-rate and more than 1,000 affordable homes reserved for households earning moderate incomes. Current residents will be temporarily relocated and given housing vouchers during the redevelopment.

The Collaborative is planning to build the mixed-use development to be known as One San Pedro in three phases that may take up to 20 years to complete.

The project will contain dozens of multi-story buildings as high as 180 feet tall. Parks, a pedestrian plaza and a sports park will be part of the development.

Construction on the first phase, which is expected to be completed in about six years, will replace 157 apartments with 375K of community services and two public parks. The second phase, beginning in 2031 and slated for delivery in 2035, will replace 144 apartments with 600 new homes, 25K of retail, 30K SF of community services and two more parks.

The final phase will replace 178 apartments with 625 new homes, 23K of community services and 20K of retail.

The 85K SF of community service space will include child care facilities, mental health treatment centers, afterschool programs and business incubators. The retail will include grocery and drug stores.

Rancho San Pedro was developed in the late 1930s by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority as housing for defense industry workers for the area’s hub of defense contractors, including local US Navy shipyards near the port.

By the time the first 285 apartments at Rancho San Pedro were ready to be occupied, the entire complex was on “active duty”—in August 1942 the complex was deployed not only as housing for the rapidly expanding defense factories, but also as living quarters for military families.

The complex was converted to public housing in 1953, when another 190 garden apartment units were added.