With Los Angeles’ growing residential crisis, developers are left to get creative, doing things such as converting land and changing entitlements to do so.

In this case, KB Home, the Westwood-based development firm, recently purchased 13.5 acres of commercial land in South El Monte for $24 million on which it plans plan to build as many 200 homes. Zoning for the land, which was originally commercial, was changed to residential by city officials due to significant housing shortages in the San Gabriel Valley. The change in entitlement took nearly two years to complete.

“The process to change the entitlement from commercial to residential, though long, was the ultimate catalyst that enabled this transaction to come to fruition,” Nick Peukpiboon, a real estate agent at DUAM Commercial Real Estate Services, which directed the sale of the land, said in a statement. “El Monte city leadership recognized the need and saw the value of changing the zoning in order to bring in additional family housing to the San Gabriel Valley.”

Taking already-vacant lots and reimagining the land available opens the ballpark of possibilities when it comes to building new housing developments and addressing the need to create more affordable homes.

“This property was an excellent opportunity for both the buyer and the seller to achieve their business objectives,” Peukpiboon said in a statement.

The property, located at 2540 Rosemead Blvd., formerly housed the Starlite Drive-In movie theater, which was built in the 1950s. As drive-ins began to fall out of popularity, the site was sold to the Taiwanese-based business Starlite Swap Meet Group in the 1990s and became known for the Starlite Swap Meet.

In 2020, the site was closed due to Covid-19 and was never reopened.