Key takeaways
- cityLAB-UCLA is expanding its "Small Lots, Big Impacts" initiative by partnering with Genesis LA to build new starter home projects on small parcels of privately owned land.
- Up to three development teams will be selected to acquire private parcels of land and build missing middle homeownership projects in Los Angeles.
- This continuation of cityLAB's groundbreaking "Small Lots, Big Impacts" initiative will release a request for information on May 7.
As part of the ongoing "Small Lots, Big Impacts" initiative to turn vacant small lots into new starter homes, cityLAB-UCLA and Genesis LA are announcing a new opportunity to build missing middle homeownership projects on small parcels of privately owned land. "Missing middle" refers to medium-density residential buildings — such as duplexes, fourplexes and courtyard apartments — that blend into single-family neighborhoods.
Distinct from cityLAB's existing public land development program, this new offering expands the initiative by incentivizing housing development on privately held small lots across the city. Through favorable financing provided by Genesis LA's Homeownership Innovation Fund, this private land program is expected to support the construction of up to three demonstration projects.
"Public land will continue to be a focus for innovation, but privately owned lots have always been the long term target for these compact starter homes, since that is the way Los Angeles has always thrived," said Dana Cuff, founding director of cityLAB, a research center within the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. "There's clearly a ready market for more affordable home ownership, and the 'Small Lots' initiative will show us how beautifully that will fit into existing residential areas."
Since its unveiling in December 2024 at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass's Innovative Construction Expo, the "Small Lots, Big Impacts" initiative has focused on advancing creative strategies for building missing middle homeownership projects in Los Angeles more quickly and affordably. The following spring, cityLAB hosted a design competition in which more than 350 designers gave form to these strategies by creating housing schemes that showed what high-quality, multifamily, attainable homeownership projects could look like.
Now, through a request for information (RFI), cityLAB and Genesis LA will select development teams to acquire private parcels of land and build up to three missing middle homeownership projects in Los Angeles. To help deliver new housing units, the winning teams will receive a robust financing package from Genesis LA's newly created Small Lots, Big Impacts Homeownership Innovation Fund, which provides favorable lending terms covering up to 95% of total development costs, including land acquisition, predevelopment and construction.
"We have observed that missing middle housing developers struggle to attract investment capital and this limits the opportunities to add new missing middle housing supply to the Los Angeles market," said Tom De Simone, president and CEO of Genesis LA. "Our goal is to model the viability of these housing types so that more local developers can successfully pursue more projects like these in the future."
Genesis LA's Homeownership Innovation Fund builds on an existing national initiative — Connecting Capital and Community (3C) — which aims to uplift novel models of creating and preserving affordable housing and supporting wealth building in communities across the country. Led by Genesis LA in Los Angeles, 3C is also operating in Miami, Chicago, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Teams responding to the RFI will be evaluated based on how well their work reflects the goals and design objectives of the "Small Lots, Big Impacts" initiative: showing how infill construction, shared amenities and compact, affordable communities can present viable alternatives to the detached single-family home. The RFI will require teams to identify their own proposed sites and development approaches. This private land program complements the forthcoming "Small Lots, Big Impacts" request for qualifications, or RFQ, for public land, which will provide teams with a preidentified list of city-owned development sites.
The RFI will be released May 7 at 5:30 p.m. during a public event at the AIA-LA headquarters in West Adams. At the event, cityLAB and Genesis LA will present details about this new opportunity. A recording of the presentation and a Q&A document will be posted shortly afterward on the "Small Lots, Big Impacts" website.
A virtual proposers conference will be held via Zoom on May 14 to address additional questions. Applications are due June 12 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
The RFI on private land and RFQ on public land are separate processes. Submitting to one does not constitute a submission to the other, nor does it affect eligibility. Teams interested in both opportunities must apply to each separately.
By advancing development on both public and private lots, the "Small Lots, Big Impacts" initiative aims to create affordable starter homes and expand pathways to homeownership for first-time buyers priced out of Los Angeles' housing market. The initiative receives financial support from BMO and LA4LA, along with partnership and guidance from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' office and the City of Los Angeles Housing Department. Funding for Genesis LA's Small Lots, Big Impacts Homeownership Innovation Fund is provided by JPMorganChase through the 3C initiative.
