An extended-vacant lot within the shadow of Metropolis Corridor is being transformed into an “artwork park” — however some downtown Los Angeles residents and a strong union aren’t happy concerning the deal and the way it went down.
The nonprofit AltaMed Well being Providers is paying the town $175,000 to lease the two-acre area on 1st Avenue and Broadway via subsequent February. On the web site, AltaMed plans to construct “El Corazón Artwork Park,” that includes an artwork gallery to showcase Mexican and Chicano works, 30 boxed timber and a well being heart — together with a 20-foot video display screen.
The plan has confronted backlash from some group members pissed off a couple of deal they really feel was hashed out behind closed doorways. Residents had lengthy been promised a city-owned and operated park on the lot, and a few worry AltaMed has extra everlasting plans for the area.
“For a half-century this area has been surrounded by lovely buildings and parks, and it’s a failure that it has not been utilized,” mentioned Jens Midthun, the top of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. “We would like the people who find themselves going to make use of the park to be part of the method. That’s not what occurred this time.”
AltaMed runs greater than 40 medical facilities in Southern California, with practically 6,000 workers. It targets Latino and multi-ethnic areas as a part of its declared mission to remove disparities in well being care entry.
Its chief government, Cástulo de la Rocha, served on Mayor Karen Bass’ transition workforce after she received the mayor’s race in 2022. De la Rocha and greater than a dozen different executives at AltaMed additionally gave the utmost $1,800 in particular person contributions to Bass’ reelection marketing campaign, contributing a complete of greater than $34,000 to the mayor’s marketing campaign coffers.
Bass supported AltaMed’s plan for its profit to the group, mentioned spokesperson Kolby Lee.
“It is a no-brainer — this vacant lot has sat empty for many years,” Lee mentioned in a press release. “It’s about time that Los Angeles — a metropolis that’s practically 50% Latino of which 70% are of Mexican descent — has a museum that honors and uplifts Chicano and Mexican Artwork.”
Doctor Marie Flores, proper, examines affected person Karla Olguin, 35, left, at an AltaMed clinic in Pico Rivera on Aug. 31, 2021.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)
In a press release, AltaMed’s vp of public affairs Christina Sanchez mentioned the park will “rework a long-underutilized downtown web site right into a vibrant, publicly accessible area providing free arts, recreation, wellness, and numerous cultural programming for Angelenos and guests.”
Sanchez added that the challenge will probably be operated for free of charge to taxpayers and went via the town’s public overview course of. The corporate additionally met and spoke with residents and neighborhood organizations as a part of the method. The park is anticipated to open within the subsequent few months.
Together with downtown residents, the challenge has triggered opposition from the highly effective Service Worker Worldwide Union, Native 721, which represents greater than 100,000 public sector workers in Southern California.
In a press release to The Occasions, a spokesperson for SEIU 721 mentioned the union opposed the park as a result of a lot of its members dwell in downtown L.A. and help the event of a public park on the web site. The union represents 2,300 metropolis Recreation and Parks Division employees.
The union contends the plan ought to have gone via a stricter environmental overview and that the corporate had not been clear on whether or not it deliberate to cost the general public for occasions within the park. The union additionally questioned AltaMed’s plan to have well being companies out there on the artwork park, its hopes for a long-term lease of the positioning and the corporate’s plan to have a 20-foot digital billboard for sponsors in addition to for content material about artwork, tradition and sports activities on the park.
Like AltaMed, the union has additionally backed the mayor. Since Could, the union has given $300,000 complete to 2 impartial expenditure teams working to get Bass reelected.
AltaMed is a non-union well being companies supplier and has clashed with SEIU 721’s sister union, SEIU-UHW on the state stage.
AltaMed didn’t straight reply among the union’s claims, directing The Occasions to a press release the nonprofit offered.
“AltaMed has been clear that El Corazón Artwork Park is a short lived activation that straight aligns with AltaMed’s mission,” Sanchez additionally mentioned in her assertion.
The lot’s fashionable historical past begins with an earthquake.
The 2-acre area was the positioning of the California State Constructing, which suffered systemic injury within the 1971 Sylmar earthquake and was demolished 5 years later.
It lay idle till 2013, when the town purchased and cleared the area for $10 million and introduced a plan to show it right into a park as a part of former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “50 Parks Initiative,” which sought so as to add extra small parks to the town.
The plan was celebrated by the steadily rising variety of downtown residents longing for extra open area in a “park-poor” neighborhood.
Development employees started work on the AltaMed artwork park.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
The town held a contest to design the park, and former Metropolis Councilmember José Huizar introduced the winner with a press convention on the empty lot in 2016. On the time, he mentioned the park was anticipated to be accomplished in 2019.
It will have hosted a restaurant, strolling paths and inexperienced area, and even metallic buildings resembling flowers that may have collected solar energy to generate power for the park.
The town had about $20 million put aside for the park, however the prices for truly constructing it have been larger, officers mentioned.
In 2023, the park plan was placed on maintain as a consequence of lack of funding. The cash that had been put aside for it was moved to different initiatives, together with the park beneath the Sixth Avenue Viaduct.
The filth lot remained.
As early as 2024, AltaMed was arising with plans for the area behind the scenes on the highest stage of metropolis authorities.
“Our CEO, Cástulo de la Rocha, has already talked about the challenge to Mayor Bass, and she or he has expressed curiosity,” wrote AltaMed’s legislative supervisor in an October 2024 e mail to a high Bass aide, which was seen by The Occasions.
In a September 2025 e mail to an assistant common supervisor of the parks division, AltaMed introduced the town with a plan for a 35- to 55-year floor lease for the lot, on which it will construct its Chicano museum in addition to a restaurant, bar and on-site clinic. In earlier emails to the town, the nonprofit projected it will value $218 million to construct the underground parking, storage, theater and library for the museum.
A map plan of AltaMed’s short-term artwork park at 1st Avenue and Broadway, throughout from Metropolis Corridor.
(Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners)
On the finish of its emailed proposal, AltaMed had a easy ask.
“Respectfully, we request from the Metropolis of Los Angeles and the Division of Recreation and Parks: An extended-term floor lease of the positioning at a minimal value,” the group wrote.
However in February, when the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners took up plans with AltaMed, the plans had shifted. AltaMed now requested approval to construct a pop-up artwork park at 1st Avenue and Broadway for only a single, yearlong lease.
It was initially proposed as short-term occasion area related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, however plans have been by no means accomplished in time for that to occur.
Development employees start work on the AltaMed artwork park.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
On the heart of the park, the nonprofit deliberate to construct a 30-foot tall “coronary heart construction” that may “challenge content material about artwork, tradition, wellness, sports activities and sponsor recognition,” the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners wrote in a report approving the challenge.
The plan, the parks board report famous, was supported each by Bass and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, whose district contains the positioning.
Jurado mentioned the short-term artwork park would make good use of land that has been fenced off and unused, however careworn that her workplace will guarantee a clear course of for the long-term use of the lot.
“From the start, I made clear that my help for the short-term activation was depending on a sturdy group engagement course of,” she mentioned. “That help is proscribed to this short-term use of the positioning and shouldn’t be interpreted as help for any future everlasting proposal.”
Downtown Los Angeles Residents Assn. member Leslie Ridings.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
The Board of Recreation and Parks accepted the plan with AltaMed in Could, granting it a lease into 2027.
The Downtown Los Angeles Residents Assn. urged in a letter to the town in April that the short-term nature of the artwork park could possibly be “serving as a bridge to one thing extra everlasting earlier than the general public has had a good alternative to weigh in.”
“We’re asking for a full, honest and clear course of for the long-term use,” mentioned Cassy Horton, a co-founder of the resident affiliation.
In Could, the identical month that the town parks board accepted the plan, SEIU 721 entered the fray, interesting the board’s resolution to the Metropolis Council. The council rejected SEIU 721’s enchantment in late June, permitting the challenge to maneuver ahead.
4 days after the council vote, Leslie Ridings and Horton of the residents affiliation stood outdoors the fenced off lot as two males with the group Vincor Development ambled about driving stakes into the bottom.
Horton conceded that it is perhaps higher to have the artwork park on the area than a dust lot, however she mentioned the abandonment of the general public park was an indication of the town failing the downtown group.
“This sample of shifting funding away from long-promised community-supported initiatives is a large concern for the neighborhood,” she mentioned.
