Is There Hope for This 1920s Bank Building?
A stately 1928 bank building (originally Security Trust and Saving Bank) stands at Pacific and 7th in San Pedro, not far from the elegant Warner Grand Theatre.
For some time, it was the Croatian Cultural Center. A 2017 plan to relocate the Croatian Consulate from West LA to San Pedro (home to some 30,000 Croatian Americans) collapsed.
The city-owned building, left empty and vulnerable, was broken into, vandalized, occupied by squatters, and stripped of copper wire and plumbing. Repair estimates have run into the low seven figures.
Tim McOsker, who represents San Pedro, has filed a motion for the city to sell the property. I understand his logic. The cultural center is closed, the consulate never came, and I doubt the city wants to spend money on repairs, let alone a restoration.
San Pedro is supposed to host a Croatia House during the 2028 Olympics. I wonder if organizers have a location lined up yet. Could the bank building be repaired in time? Could the Cultural Center make a comeback after that?
Third spaces, community hubs, and cultural programming are important (trust me on this, the heart of my people’s neighborhood was bulldozed for a freeway). We need more of them, and we need to crack down on the thugs who selfishly render vacant buildings unusable.
We would like to see the City turn this building (which it obtained from the dissolved redevelopment agency) back over to community serving use rather than marketing it to investors.