The nation’s first mixed-use apartment complex featuring a ground-level Costco has broken ground in South Los Angeles.
The project, developed by community developer Thrive Living, will become an 800-unit apartment building featuring a street-level Costco Wholesale store located at 5035 Coliseum St. in Baldwin Hills.
This marks the first mixed-use development in the U.S. to have Costco as the anchor retail tenant. The wholesale retailer estimates that up to 400 jobs will be created at this new location.
“We sought out Costco as the anchor for this project because we listened carefully to the community,” Jordan Brill, a partner with Thrive Living, said in a statement. “By providing local residents with access to great value on high quality food and merchandise and creating local jobs with industry-leading pay and benefits, Costco’s principles and mission fit seamlessly with our vision for this project.”
Of the 800 apartment units, 184 will be dedicated to low-income households. Unlike other affordable housing developers, Thrive Living privately finances its projects without the use of government subsidies such as low-income housing tax credits.
This means that 184 units will be non-subsidized affordable housing with the remainder being market rate. The site is designed to support families, seniors and other residents to move laterally from within the community.
“We are breaking with the old ways of doing things and moving Los Angeles forward,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at the project’s groundbreaking. “Unprecedented action driven by urgent collaboration in both the public and private sector is what is expected and that’s what we are delivering.”
The apartment design includes a full-service fitness center, shared workspaces, study spaces, community rooms, landscaped courtyards and a rooftop pool. And downstairs, Costco plans to feature its usual plethora of food offerings, as well as provide optical services, a pharmacy and delivery services to support the needs of local businesses.
“I used to live just minutes from here – and I know the hundreds of housing units, the thousands of jobs and the new wave of resources that this project will bring to this community has potential to make a generational impact on this neighborhood,” Bass added at the groundbreaking ceremony. “This is about delivering for the people of Los Angeles, and we will continue this urgent work.”
The project is estimated to take two and half years to build.
