City to Get $10.5-Million Loan to Restore Downtown

Inglewood has been given a $10.5-million loan to help restore the city’s ailing downtown.

Federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who has been in Los Angeles this week to visit several HUD projects, toured the commercial area around Market Street with officials and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). City officials plan to develop a pedestrian plaza with outdoor cafes and retail shops, and a 12-screen movie theater complex.

“Businesses have become more mobile in the last few years and they’re fleeing the large, old cities that built this nation,” Cuomo said. “Everyone, everywhere, every place deserves an opportunity. . . . The economy is strong and there’s no better time to create opportunity than now.”

During its heyday in the 1950s, Inglewood was the retail center of the South Bay. But as shopping malls opened nearby in the 1970s, many stores went out of business.

City officials said they want to create a retail and entertainment center that will boost tax revenue and get residents spending money within city limits.