A vacant lot at 4345 S. Crenshaw Boulevard in Leimert Park is slated for a five-story building with 56 apartments reserved for low- and moderate-income renters, according to an application filed with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. The site sits directly across from the Metro K Line's Leimert Park station, and the project would also include roughly 1,974 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking for just 11 vehicles.
The application, first reported by Urbanize LA, identifies Venice Community Housing as the developer behind the five-story, podium-style complex. The nonprofit is using affordable housing bonus and streamlining measures to move the project through city review, per the filing, and the building would include a mandatory manager's unit alongside the 56 residential apartments. The site is currently vacant, having previously held a commercial building.
A Site Once Known as the Apollo of the West
Before it sat empty, 4345 S. Crenshaw Boulevard was home to Total Experience, an R&B, funk, and soul nightclub and recording studio that operated from 1972 until it was destroyed by fire in 1990, according to Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, the Bay Area architecture firm designing the project. The venue was known locally as the Apollo of the West, and its legacy connects the modern affordable housing proposal to Leimert Park's history as a hub of Black entertainment and nightlife. Designing Justice + Designing Spaces led interactive community-engagement sessions in the neighborhood before completing schematic designs for the building in 2023, per the same firm's account.
To keep the parcel out of speculative hands, Venice Community Housing partnered with Liberty Community Land Trust — described by the California Community Land Trust Network as Los Angeles's only Black-led community land trust — along with Downtown Crenshaw Rising, according to the California Community Land Trust Network. That structure is meant to place the land under permanent community stewardship rather than leaving it exposed to the real estate market surrounding the Metro K Line corridor.
Financing Drew on Racial Equity Bonds
Century Housing Corporation supplied a $3.35 million acquisition loan to Venice Community Housing through its Emerging Developers Program, which draws on JPMorgan Chase Bank and U.S. Bank Racial Equity Bonds, according to Century Housing Corporation. That program is built to funnel capital to nonprofit developers expanding housing access across California. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation separately approved a $1.5 million predevelopment line of credit to Venice Community Housing in December 2023, covering planning, design, and pre-construction costs across the nonprofit's housing pipeline, including the Crenshaw project, per LISC.
City planning records show the project was first submitted in February 2023 under Mayor Karen Bass's Executive Directive 1 and Density Bonus provisions, a pathway created in December 2022 to fast-track fully affordable developments and bypass longer discretionary reviews, according to Los Angeles City Planning. The 0.35-acre, roughly 15,200-square-foot parcel is zoned C1.5-1-SP within a Tier 4 Transit Oriented Communities zone, which allows for greater density and reduced parking minimums near major rail stops. Before the current proposal, the site had been marketed for commercial sale at $3.25 million, according to The Neema Group.
Who the Building Would House
Beyond the general income restrictions on the 56 units, the project is planned to serve low-income families, unhoused individuals, and transitional-aged youth exiting the foster care system, with rents targeted to households earning between 30% and 60% of Area Median Income, according to Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. That range is meant to reach both low-income and extremely low-income Angelenos.
The Leimert Park proposal fits into a broader pattern for Venice Community Housing, which has other transit-oriented affordable projects underway across the region. In Santa Monica, the nonprofit is co-developing the 78-unit 20th Street Apartments near the E Line, which broke ground in April 2025 and is expected to finish in mid-2027. The organization also has a 120-unit project called Venice Dell moving forward after clearing a legal hurdle earlier this year, and it has other developments planned or underway in Venice and Santa Monica.
Part of a Larger Push Along Crenshaw
The Leimert Park acquisition reflects a wider movement among neighborhood coalitions, including the Los Angeles Community Land Trust Coalition, to secure land along the Crenshaw Boulevard corridor since the Metro K Line opened its Leimert Park station, according to the Liberty Hill Foundation. Those efforts aim to protect Black-owned businesses and longtime residents from displacement as real estate activity along the corridor picks up. Elsewhere near the station, a workforce housing project for Metro employees is also planned along Crenshaw Boulevard, and a separate mixed-use project on 43rd Street was recently completed nearby.
The Crenshaw Boulevard filing remains under review by city planners, and no construction timeline has been announced. For a neighborhood still tied to the memory of Total Experience, the proposal represents an attempt to root new affordable housing in the same ground where the Apollo of the West once drew crowds for nearly two decades.
