How do you fight gentrification?
his was the question a small group of Little Tokyo activists asked themselves about seven years ago as they met in a suite at the Teramachi Condominiums. The group came together out of concern that a number of small businesses, some legacy businesses, were being priced out of the neighborhood.
After scratching their heads and contemplating various scenarios such as land trusts and co-ops, the group came up with something akin to a “community-controlled real estate investment trust” that could attract investors and seek to purchase Little Tokyo commercial properties with the added benefit of keeping rents under control.
Such an entity had never existed before, but the thinking among the group members was “If you own it, you can control it,” and to try to do something to fight gentrification was better than doing nothing.
Thus, the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund (LTCIF) was started with the formation of a board of directors to launch the effort.
According to Bill Watanabe, one of the original group members and now the board president, “We knew normal community folks, meaning not the uber-wealthy types, would like to participate in such a venture and become ‘owners of Little Tokyo property’ and also would have an interest to invest to help preserve the historic ethnic neighborhood, so we designed the LTCIF to have two levels of investment — one at the $1,000 level and a second at the $10,000 level.
“We did a lot of informational and outreach gatherings and we were getting investors to buy into the concept — but then COVID 19 came and put the kibosh on in-person outreach meetings. But nevertheless, we did manage to raise just under $1 million — not enough to buy a property outright but enough to be in the game.”
Glenn Sanada, another LTCIF board member, stated, “A property came up for sale right on First Street in the historic core of Little Tokyo, and we approached a local foundation to help us buy the property and keep it out of the hands of some outside investor who didn’t care about Little Tokyo and only cared about making money.
“The foundation board saw the importance of keeping this valuable historic property under community control and supported our request, which allowed us to buy the building. When we closed escrow on Aug. 18, the LTCIF board members were very excited and elated after these many years of trying to own a piece of Little Tokyo.”
The property, located at 323 E. First St., has three small business tenants and also office spaces on the second floor.
According to board member Dr. Dean Toji, “We are planning a community public celebration sometime in November to let people know what we are up to, and to encourage more investors to support the work of LTCIF.”
For more information on the organization, go to: https://littletokyocif.com/