Abode Communities Plans Seniors Housing

The property has been sitting vacant for two years, according to Robert Dixon of NAI Capital, who says that Abode's redevelopment of the property "will provide much needed low-income housing for senior citizens." Dixon represented Abode in the $4.5 million acquisition,m with Lee Ho of NAI Capital's Pasadena office representing the seller, Quid Pro Quo Property Exchange Inc. Construction is scheduled to start in July on the project, which is near the intersections of Lake and Washington avenues.

Abode, which was founded in 1968 as the Los Angeles Community Design Center, designs, builds and manages affordable housing. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit changed its name to more accurately reflects its current organization and its overall goal of providing well-designed and developed affordable housing, according to the firm's web site. It says that only its name has changed and that it continues to specialize in architecture, development, housing services and resident services.

Abode's new project joins a list of other affordable and seniors housing projects by for-profits and nonprofits alike, that are under way or have been completed in the Los Angles area in recent months. Some are 100% affordable and others have portions of the building set aside for affordable housing.

Amcal Multi-Housing Inc. of Agoura Hills, for example, completed a 74-unit, 100% affordable apartment complex called Villas del Lago in the Westlake/MacArthur Park area in February. In January, the New York City-based Related Cos. reported that it had reached 100% leasing on the developer's new 128-unit Hikari apartment complex, a public-private project in the Little Tokyo district of Downtown L.A. where 20% of the units are designated as affordable housing, with the rest market-rate.