Pico
Youth Center Warms Up New Home |
By Anita Varghese
Staff Writer
October 2 -- The Pico Youth
and Family Center -- which gives at
risk youth an alternative to hanging
out on the streets -- has found a
new home within earshot of all the
happy shrieks and squeals of Santa
Monica High School students.
Now located at 711 Pico Blvd., the
nonprofit center is three blocks from
the high school on the same side of
Pico Boulevard.
Before the lease ran out at the center’s
former location in the 800 block of
Pico Boulevard, high school students
had to cross a major intersection
to get to the center, which provides
tutoring, social services, psychological
counseling, music studio sessions
and computer labs for 130 to 200 youth
between the ages of 16 and 24.
“It’s an expansion,”
said Oscar de la Torre, the center’s
executive director. “There is
going to be some advantages here because
we are closer to the high school.
But we are now sort of back to where
we started -- investing our money
to fix up rented space.”
The center had been renting space
at 828 Pico Blvd. since 2001, where
staff and volunteers spent $40,000
transforming a 1,900-square-foot former
warehouse storage area into a vibrant
house of art, education and music.
De la Torre said his former landlord
refused to renew an annual lease this
summer in an effort to provide more
space for the Child Success Center,
a for-profit private tutoring and
education center that moved into the
building in July.
De la Torre said the former landlord
once told him the property owners
preferred to seek ways to increase
profits with fewer tenants.
“The landlord didn’t
even give the Pico Youth and Family
Center an option to renew its lease,”
he said. “We spent five years
and $40,000 installing walls in the
space and making improvements to the
utilities, lights and fans.”
Center staff and volunteers have
less to worry now that they have found
2,500 square feet of new space, a
12-year lease accompanied by a purchase
option and a friendly new landlord.
“He is very supportive,”
said de la Torre. “He would
very much like to see us buy the place.
Here is the best opportunity we have
at the moment to rent some decent
space, while we try to raise enough
money to make a purchase.”
The space next to the Bicycle Ambulance
repair shop had been vacant for some
time, with the property owner renting
it to an unknown tenant who used the
wide open area for storage.
“It wasn’t even on the
market,” de la Torre said. “I
walked by thinking it was empty for
several years. I met the owner, we
talked, and he said to make an offer.
I told him what we could afford, and
he was very cool about it.”
The new landlord endeared himself
again to the center’s staff
by offering to install a new roof
and air conditioning and renovate
the bathrooms.
The Pico Youth and Family Center
will use $50,000 in one-time money
from the City of Santa Monica to put
in new floors, paint the walls and
set up a recording studio, staff offices
and conference rooms.
“We would like to keep the
space open as much as possible, so
that when young people come in, there
are computer and homework stations,”
de la Torre said.
The staff spent much of Saturday,
Sunday and Monday vacating the center’s
former location to meet a month’s
end move-out date.
“Transitions are always hard,
but I think we will do much better
at this new location,” said
Alex Aldana, the center’s community
organizer and event coordinator.
De la Torre said his staff has fully
negotiated all terms of the new lease,
but the City needs to review the lease
before construction and occupancy
permits can be issued.
The center needs City approval because
funding comes from a $300,000 annual
City grant in addition to the one-time
relocation assistance.
“They just want to protect
their investment,” de la Torre
said. “They don’t want
us to get kicked out again, so they
look at the lease to ensure we have
longevity. The 12-year lease satisfies
them.”
City Manager Lamont Ewell was expected
to approve the lease on Monday. “If
it wasn’t for the City, the
Pico Youth and Family Center wouldn’t
even exist,” de la Torre said.
A subcontractor for architect Ralph
Mechur, who worked with the center
to renovate its former space, has
been hired to prevent any conflict
of interest that may arise because
Mechur and de la Torre both sit on
the School Board.
A bid process for construction renovation
work will start soon so that the center
reopens in January 2008.
“Starting with a new year,
it will be a new life for the Pico
Youth and Family Center,” de
la Torre said. “We will be ready
to go.”
He said fundraising efforts are always
ongoing and the center would “appreciate
all financial support to continue
to provide its gang intervention work.”
“We are the only youth center
on the Westside and probably in Los
Angeles that offers a free, professional
recording studio that is open to the
public,” de la Torre said. “We
always need help.”
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