There are ambitious plans in the works to revive Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles, and make it as much of a community destination as the recently gentrified Downtown and Highland Park areas. This would be accomplished through transforming the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and surrounding area into an “urban village” that would mirror Glendale’s Americana at Brand, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Updates and upgrades on the plaza area would include a 12-story hotel, office space, new shops, restaurants, condominiums and apartments. Adding to the area’s potential appeal are a Kaiser Permanente medical center set to open next spring and a subway station planned for 2019.
Developer and mall owner Capri Capital Partners, which has spent more than $35 million in major upgrades on the shopping center since its 1988 inception, has made efforts to woo retailers with tours of well-to-do neighborhoods of View Park, Baldwin Hills and Ladera Heights. It has also taken maintenance and security teams on field trips to the Grove to show them ways they could upgrade their own plaza.