Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press Local business people gathered at the Yahoo Center for the 4th annual Westside Business Expo on Tuesday. The Expo is a combination trade show and network mixer, promoting business-to-business opportunities on the Westside. The after-hours event included prizes, food, and numerous exhibitors from the local business community. Dozens of tenants face May 1 deadline to move
VENICE — Current and former tenants of Lincoln Place Garden Apartments will enter into another round of mediation hearings today with the owners of the 38-acre site to see if the parties can reach an agreement before a May deadline forces out remaining tenants.
The mediation will take place at Pepperdine University’s West Los Angeles location and be facilitated by Peter Robinson, managing director of the Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution and associate professor of Law at Pepperdine, who has already donated more than 15 hours of his time to convene the negotiation process.
The owners of Lincoln Place, Apartment Investment and Management Co. (AIMCO) — one of the largest real estate management companies in the country — have plans to redevelop the property into condominiums and luxury apartments.
The management firm’s efforts have been blocked by the Lincoln Place Tenants Association, which along with the Los Angeles Conservancy, is fighting AIMCO’s redevelopment plans.
More than 55 tenants have already been evicted and dozens more still living on the property face a May 1 deadline to pack up and move.
“We’re hoping that we can reach some kind of an agreement before that deadline,” said Jan Book, a former tenant of Lincoln Place, who said she and others are fighting for 180 units of low-income housing to be developed at the site. They also share concerns that the sense of community fostered at Lincoln Place will be lost if redevelopment changes the “openness” of the location.
A spokeswoman for AIMCO declined to comment on the mediation because of a gag order imposed by the mediator.
In previous interviews, Patti Schwayder, vice president of government relations and communications for AIMCO, said the company offered a “generous” relocation package to tenants, which has played a large part in the site’s declining occupancy. AIMCO also has offered 140 units of affordable housing to former tenants.
Lincoln Place, a garden-style campus of 52 buildings built in 1951, east of Lincoln Boulevard near Rose Avenue, was originally backed by the Federal Housing Authority to support World War II veterans and their families.
Once offering 795 affordable apartments, the site has been largely abandoned in the face of the ongoing legal battle between residents and the owner that began shortly after 1992, when AIMCO proposed a redevelopment plan that called for 850 total units, most of which would be market rate condos.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.