A group of 100 retirees, school teachers and regular people who love Little Tokyo pooled their money together to buy as many buildings as they could to protect the historic Los Angeles neighborhood.
“What we don’t want is some speculating investment group from Beverly Hills or China or whatever and they don’t care about the neighborhood, they just want to make money,” Bill Watanabe said.
Watanabe and his friends started the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund as a way to fight gentrification. They’ve amassed 100 investors and almost $1 million. With some foundation support, they leveraged their money to buy their first building last month.
“When we got this building, the previous owner told tenants here that they sold the building,” Watanabe said. “The first thing they said was, ‘You think they’ll jack up the rents?’ I think we can surprise them and say, ‘Well, actually, we’re the best landlord you can have. Our goal is to keep your rents reasonable.”
Investors might make a modest return, but most of the profit will be retained to keep rents low and prevent culturally related mom-and-pop shops and restaurants from being priced out.
One of the places they hope to keep in business is Far Bar in the historic Far East Cafe building, where the community has been gathering since before World War II.
“Preserving the neighborhood is kind of a big challenge,” Watanabe said. “Everything in downtown LA is becoming more expensive.”