Fighting to Keep Affordability as Part of Equation

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Award Winners: The Business Journal has selected 11 of the most influential players in mixed-use development in Los Angeles. Recipients received their awards March 15 at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel.


Mixed-use is booming in Los Angeles. But convincing developers that low-income housing can pencil into the project is still a hit-or-miss affair. That’s where Bill Harris comes in.


As executive director of the Hollywood Community Housing Corp., Harris made believers out of Village Properties, a developer of Walgreens drug stores. He took a leadership role in the development of Views at 270, a mixed-use complex at Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue that features 56 low-income apartments above a store.


“We had 14 months to do our due diligence, design the building, and secure our financing,” Harris explained. “The commercial players were skeptical we had the skill-set. But of the 100 Walgreens that Village Properties has built, this the only one that came in on time.”


A product of Manhattan Beach, Harris worked for Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Saudi Arabia before getting an M.B.A. in affordable housing from USC. He became executive director of Hollywood Community five years ago. It’s housed more than 2,000 residents scattered among seventeen buildings and 600 units since its formation in 1983.


Harris structures each new building as a limited partnership, relying on funds from local and county agencies such as the Los Angeles Housing Department and the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles. Financing for Views At 270 roughly $22 million is also cobbled from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, the California Tax Credit Committee, the California Multi-Family Home Program and 4 percent tax credit public bonds.


Not every mixed-use development has panned out. Hollywood Community recently tried to team up with Extra-Space Storage in the Pico-Union area. But the site could accommodate only 27 units and offered minimal job creation and Harris did not move forward.


An ongoing challenge for Harris has been the perception that low-income tenants scare off retail buyers. The developer provides on-site resident managers, operating and replacement reserves, and quarterly inspections. And Harris personally walks each building with his staff looking for beer cans or other problems.


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Best Non-Profit



Hollywood Community Housing Corp.



Bill Harris, executive director


Born:

Pasadena, 1954


Accomplishments:

Redeveloping scarred buildings such as the Palomar, which had a fatal arson fire, into senior housing.


Quote:

“Don’t wait until it’s a shotgun marriage between public and commercial interests. Invite the non-profit in early on any mixed-use development so we can determine if the project is suitable for affordable housing.”

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