LITTLE TOKYO : Casa Heiwa Passes Financing Hurdle

The proposed Casa Heiwa low-rent apartment complex passed one bureaucratic hurdle recently when the Community Redevelopment Agency board gave its nod to a financing agreement for the 100-unit project.

The nonprofit developers, the Little Tokyo Service Center and Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment, still must get City Council approval and apply for tax credits for the project to go forward. The developers hope to begin construction at Third and Los Angeles streets by the end of the year.

Casa Heiwa (a name that combines the Spanish word for “house” with the Japanese word for “peace”) will provide studios to four-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents starting at $300. The four-story building will include underground parking, a child care center, a playground, basketball court and social services such as job training provided by the Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment and other local organizations.

Under terms approved by the CRA board, the nonprofit groups will buy the 1.25 acres of land from the agency for $2.2 million. The CRA will loan $6.1 million to the developers for the $14.5-million project. Terms of the loan have not been set.

The service center plans to raise an additional $5 million to $6 million by selling tax credits it receives as a nonprofit entity and by applying for conventional loans. Another $4 million will come from the Century Freeway housing replacement program created to make up for housing demolished during freeway construction.

The CRA will also spend an estimated $370,000 to find and maintain about 200 replacement parking spaces for Caltrans workers who are parking on the property under an arrangement negotiated when the agency bought the land from Caltrans in 1989.

The CRA originally expected to use the site for a hotel and condominium development, but economic factors forced the project to be abandoned. In 1991, the agency decided to designate the site for affordable housing.

Project backers hope in particular to draw senior citizens, tenants with disabilities and minimum-wage earners.