Marlton Square is a one-block

medical facility A health facility is, in general, any location where healthcare is provided. Health facilities range from small clinics and doctor's offices to urgent care centers and large hospitals with elaborate emergency rooms and trauma centers. The numbe ...

, retail and residential portion of Marlton Ave, located in the

Baldwin Village Baldwin Village is a commercial enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the west of downtown Toronto, within the Grange Park neighbourhood, one block north of Dundas Street West, between Beverley and McCaul Streets. The former mo ...

neighborhood in the city of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. It is bordered by Martin Luther King Jr Blvd on the north, Marlton Ave on the east, Santa Rosalia Dr on the south, Angeles Vista Blvd on the southeast, Thrive Dr. on the southwest and Buckingham Road on the west. Across from the medical facility is the

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza (alternately BHCP) is a shopping mall located in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. This was one of the first regional shopping centers in the United States built specifically for the autom ...

, a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

History

Marlton Square was created and built in the early 1950s as a retail strip mall. It was then known as Santa Barbara Plaza due do the fact it was on

Santa Barbara Avenue Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (also known as MLK Blvd or simply King Blvd; originally Santa Barbara Avenue) is an east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from Obama Boulevard in Baldwin Village to South Alameda Stree ...

before it was changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. In 2003, local developers broke ground in the first phase of the Marlton Square

redevelopment Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space. Description Variations on redevelopment include ...

project. This phase involved constructing the Buckingham Place Senior

Retirement Community A retirement community is a residential community or housing complex designed for older adults who are generally able to care for themselves. Assistance from home care agencies is allowed in some communities, and activities and socialization op ...

project, a 180-unit

apartment complex An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) t ...

, that is adjacent to the Baldwin Villa Plaza

senior housing A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home, old folks' home, or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – or rest home, is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Ty ...

complex and shopping mall. The project was scheduled to be completed in spring of 2004. Several million dollars of public and private funding were awarded to the project. Although the redevelopment project began with concerns of political favoritism, it was billed as "the catalytic project for the Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw communities", and a lynchpin development project for the entire area. While initially promising, financial difficulties and other problems quickly beset the project. Capital Vision Equities' first check to the city bounced in 2001 and the testimony of whistle-blowers lead to an audit by the Ethics Commission early on in the project. Ultimately these problems overwhelmed the developer, and amid complaints of mismanagement the redevelopment of Marlton Square has stalled in bankruptcy. Several other agencies have been involved with the development project, including Keyshawn Capital Development, which is owned and operated by former NFL wide receiver

Keyshawn Johnson Joseph Keyshawn Johnson (born July 22, 1972) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football for the USC Trojans, and earned All-American ho ...

. The old retail stores were demolished in May 2011 to make way for future development. By the end of 2009 Buckingham Place was largely finished but had remained unopened due to

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

. In early 2012 Buckingham Place

housing complex A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throug ...

opened. A opened on September 7, 2017. The facility has a two-mile

walking path A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Howe ...

and outdoor plaza. A new

shopping center A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

complex along with new

restaurants A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in app ...

and

retail store The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services ar ...

s are also being planned to be built by private developers. In 2022, the city request for proposals process selected

Hudson Pacific Properties Hudson Pacific Properties is a real estate investment trust with 15.8 million square feet of office buildings, 1.5 million square feet of sound stages, and undeveloped rights for 3 million square feet of additional commercial property. Its prope ...

to enter into an exclusive negotiation agreement.

Transportation

The Martin Luther King Jr. station provides access to the Kaiser Permanente medical facility, the Crenshaw Medical Arts Centre clinic office building and the

via the

K Line is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...

References

External links

In 2010, Leimert Park Beat: The Soul of Los Angeles partnered with Intersections South LA Report and Spot.us to create the definitive report on the Marlton Square/Santa Barbara Plaza fiasco.
{{authority control History of Los Angeles Kaiser Permanente hospitals Geography of Los Angeles Healthcare in California Crenshaw, Los Angeles