Quite soon, the Los Angeles headquarters of the California Association of Realtors (CAR) could be doing a lot more than simply serving as the organization’s home base.

It could be the starting point for affordable housing in its local neighborhood.

The Real Deal recently reported that CAR has filed papers with the Los Angeles City Planning Commission to tear down its current 56,000-square-foot headquarters and replace it with a mixed-use space that will integrate both commercial and residential development, including condos and apartments. The association is applying for a “density bonus,” one of the city’s Transit Oriented Communities incentives, that it says would allow it to offer more housing below market rates.

CAR itself would stay at its current location, where it has resided since 1980, and would build a new headquarters on the property, in addition to 46 condo units and 84 rental apartments the proposed building would take on. Many of the apartments would be designated as “workforce housing,” intended for residents making slightly above or slightly below the neighborhood’s median income.

In a statement to the outlet, CAR President Jeanne Radsick explained that it has a few reasons for making this change, including to make it easier for those who work in the neighborhood, in L.A.’s Koreatown, to live there.

“CAR recognizes the urgency of California’s housing crisis and wants to actively create new affordable rental and ownership housing opportunities for those who need it the most, such as our front-line responders, teachers, and other public servants who can’t afford to live in the communities they serve,” she explained.

The association has been working on the complex plan since at least 2018, but the filing shows that CAR is getting closer to turning that plan into reality.

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