For more than five decades, Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza has been a Los Angeles cultural/business icon and the place where African Americans shopped, evolving from an open-air retail hub to an indoor shopping complex.
In a 2010 interview, Quintin Primo, CEO of Capri Investment Group, told reporters “Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza is more than just a simple mall on the southside of L.A.
“And that is why it remains critically important that areas like these become more a part of mainstream America.”
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza – formerly called the Broadway-Crenshaw Center – was one of the first regional shopping centers built in the United States, specifically for the automobile.
The big ambition of the Baldwin Hill Crenshaw Plaza is very much a reflection of the neighborhood which has seen an investment boom in recent years as commercial developers search for new frontiers of gentrification as previous inexpensive markets grew pricier.
“We do not support this proposed sale to CIM to develop the Crenshaw Baldwin Hills mall,” said K.W. Tulloss, community activist and pastor of Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church.
