4th & Central (Cold Storage)

The 4th and Central project is a large development being proposed at the southeast edge of Little Tokyo. It covers 7.5 acres and will be mixed use, with 10 buildings ranging in size from 6 to 44 stories tall.

Click to view the Project Overview

Little Tokyo Community Council | Sustainable Little Tokyo
Concerns Regarding 4th & Central (Cold Storage) Project

1) Lack of meaningful community engagement.

Despite being across the street from this proposed project, Little Tokyo was never consulted in the ideation phase of this project and has not had its concerns addressed to-date.

2) Increased displacement and gentrification pressures on Little Tokyo—a historic cultural district.

Little Tokyo is 1 of only 4 remaining historical Japantowns in the nation! We are also a CA Cultural District, which includes the Historic District along First Street. While we have successfully fought against harmful developments and waves of displacement for over a hundred years, it has been a precarious existence—one we share with so many other ethnic neighborhoods in LA and beyond.

3) Inconsistent with Sustainable Little Tokyo vision.

This history largely inspired the development of our affirmative Sustainable Little Tokyo visions, specifically setting forth a framework for all future development in the area. This project’s 44-story height is completely out of scale and fails to integrate and connect to our established historic neighborhood.

4) Inadequate affordable housing.

We still don’t know how many of the over 1,500 units of housing in this project will be affordable or the level of affordability. We do know that in the past 10 years, over 700 new market rate housing units have been built—with only 46 being affordable. With a median household income of only $15,441/year, Little Tokyo needs more affordable housing. NOTE: market rate rents start at $2,080/month at Wakaba for a studio apartment.

5) Negative impacts on small, community-serving and legacy small businesses.

Little Tokyo’s small businesses are crucial to our identity and cultural fabric. The impacts of the pandemic and the new Regional Connector Metro station have contributed to the loss of at least 50 small businesses over 10 years old in the last 15 years—including 50 year old legacy business Suehiro Cafe.

6) Inadequate publicly accessible open space.

The developer hasn’t provided adequate detail about the publicly accessible open spaces to be included in the project —we don’t know where they will be located, what they will be, or how the general public will be able to access them.

7) Construction impacts further harm an existing environmental justice community.

As an Environmental Justice community that has been disproportionately burdened with high levels of air pollution and other health hazards for decades, we are very concerned by the “significant and unavoidable” construction impacts this project will have—especially on some of our most vulnerable seniors and children given the proximity to Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, Centenary United Methodist Church, Tokyo Villa, and Miyako Gardens.

8) Increased car traffic in a high injury network area.

Studies have shown that higher-income residents living next to high quality transit are more likely to own and drive a car vs. use transit. This project is not only largely serving higher-income residents, it is also adjacent to High Injury Network streets with a need for increased safe pedestrian and biking infrastructure. The addition of 1,500 new (mostly market rate) households, 68 hotel rooms, and over 2,000 parking spaces will only exacerbate car traffic and bike/pedestrian hazards.

WE NEED YOUR VOICE!

The Little Tokyo Community Council wants to understand the community's priorities on the proposed development on 4th and Central, previously Cold Storage.

Take the Survey

We need your help! As part of LTCC's work on the 4th/Central Cold Storage project, due to the many concerns around the project, we are pushing to recirculate portions of the Draft EIR. Please utilize the draft letter below to share your input as a Little Tokyo stakeholder!

Draft Letter Template