Jordan Downs Redevelopment, Watts, Los Angeles

Jordan Downs opened in the 1940s as semi-permanent housing for wartime workers in Watts and stayed in service for generations. Its replacement runs on a rule many earlier public housing rebuilds didn’t follow: residents aren’t moved off site. The Jordan Downs redevelopment builds new apartments first, relocates families into them, and only then takes down the barracks-style blocks they left.

The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) leads the program and splits vertical development between BRIDGE Housing and The Michaels Organization. Work started in May 2017. HACLA describes the full build-out as a $1 billion investment.

Project Scope

The authority’s second-quarter 2026 report puts the plan at 1,569 homes: 700 one-for-one replacements for the original public housing units, 719 additional rentals and 150 for-sale homes. Eight phases totaling 788 apartments are finished, at a combined development cost of $534.7 million, or about $678,500 a unit.

A ninth, Michaels’ 75-unit Mariposa, was 83% complete at mid-year with Walton Construction as general contractor. Its budget is $66.8 million, close to $891,000 a unit. Two more phases with 197 units are in predevelopment, and 517 units sit further out.

Different firms have built different pieces. Portrait Construction delivered BRIDGE’s most recent buildings, including the 119-unit Cypress View designed by KTGY. Cannon built the first BRIDGE phase, Cedar Grove, with SVA Architects. Mithun’s master plan replaced the old superblocks with a connected street grid, and the work included a new half-mile stretch of Century Boulevard.

Primestor’s Freedom Plaza added 113,787 square feet of retail, with Smart & Final among the anchors and about 92% of the space leased. HACLA reports a 21-acre site as fully remediated, with final soil closure expected in 2026. Nine acres of open space are planned, led by a 6.5-acre central park and a 50,000-square-foot community center that are still in design.

Why It Matters

Build-first phasing is slower and costlier than clearing a site, and the per-unit numbers show it. The phase now under construction is budgeted about a third higher per unit than the average of the eight already built.

What it buys is continuity. Families aren’t scattered with a promise of return. It also keeps jobs local: on Cypress View, HACLA says Section 3 workers logged 58% of labor hours against a 25% federal benchmark.

Nine years in, the project is about half built. The next BRIDGE phase has its site demolished and is waiting on a tax credit award.

Project Team & Details