LA County Approves Revitalization Project For Historic General Hospital Campus

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved several steps on Tuesday to repurpose and revitalize the historic General Hospital campus in Boyle Heights.

The plan is to turn the 19-story Art Deco style building, and the 25 acres surrounding it, into a community-oriented space with affordable housing, medical offices, and retail shops.

History of the hospital

The hospital opened nearly a century ago, but it’s been mostly out of commission since the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

An aerial view of the Art Deco style General Hospital building and grounds in 1933.

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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The building was damaged in the earthquake and later fell out of compliance with safety regulations, according to a letter from the L.A. County Department of Economic Opportunity.

The hospital has generally sat empty since then. However, some of the lower floors have been remodeled and are being used by The Wellness Center, a LAC+USC Medical Center Foundation program that provides health services to Boyle Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods.

In 2018, supervisors unanimously passed a motion calling for the General Hospital Feasibility Study, which was presented to them last year.

“The county completed a feasibility study with a robust 5 year outreach to evaluate and prioritize the reuse options for revitalizing this historic hospital,” Supervisor Hilda Solis said in Tuesday’s meeting. “For the first time in the county's history, [the] community was directly engaged, even in the evaluation process of the community benefits.”

Before she jumped into politics, Mayor Karen Bass worked as a physician assistant at the hospital.

What’s next for the historic campus

The project will create nearly 800,000 square feet of residential space at the old General Hospital and West Campus at the Los Angeles General Medical Center. At least 30% is required to be affordable housing, which would be about 300 units.

The other several hundred square feet is set aside for retail, medical offices, community services, hotel, and parking.

A rendering from L.A. County of what the General Hospital campus might look like once the project is complete.

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L.A. County Feasibility Study

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“It represents an opportunity to house hundreds of people and families and provide space for providing services to our community,” Solis said. “I can't think of any other place in L.A. County where we would be able to replace this.”

The board also voted to expand the Restorative Care Village at the L.A. General Medical Center alongside the revitalization plan. The village already has 96 beds for people who are not ill-enough to be hospitalized, but are too sick or frail to recover on the streets.

A new Mental Health Urgent Care Center is coming to the campus, which Solis said will provide 24-hour stabilization for adults and adolescents in crisis.

“This center will not only help decompress the crowded psych beds at L.A. General, but it will also serve as a direct drop off point for our first responders,” she said.

In addition to the urgent care center, a Residential Withdrawal Management Facility and a Psychiatric Subacute Facility will be built at 1240 North Mission Road. These additions will be geared towards those struggling with substance abuse and people who require long-term psychiatric care.

Once complete, Solis said this will double the number of mental health beds on the campus to 320.

L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, Bass’ chief housing and homelessness officer Lourdes Castro Ramírez, and dozens of members of the community spoke in support of the plans for the old General Hospital campus during the more than an hour public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

Logistics

The developer, Centennial Partners, has “extensive experience” working with L.A. County on similar mixed-use and public projects, Solis noted.

The project has secured funding from L.A. County as well as state and federal partners.

The county will be contributing $129 million for repairs, design development, and leasing the land. Another $50 million is coming from the state legislature, and $55 million will be federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act.