Incoming Inglewood Transit Connector project to displace more than a dozen businesses

Some Inglewood business owners are voicing their opinions as a city plan to tear down their shopping center to build a transit connector nears. 

The project, dubbed the Inglewood Transit Connector, has been in the works for eight years. It aims to bulldoze the current center and replace it with a parking structure and bus loop that will more efficiently connect people to the Metro K Line and the Stadium District. 

Though the plan has been known for a while, some business owners like Nina Wong are still unsure where they're going to move or what the next steps are. 

"At first kind of like freaking out," Wong, who owns Silk Nails, said. "Don't know what is going to happen. Don't know what to expect, what to do."

The plan is being conducted through eminent domain, meaning the city government is using its power to take the property for public use. Mayor James Butts said that the city has budgeted $125 million for the property, and to help the more than 20 small businesses in the area relocate. 

"This is the time for that shopping center to match the new Inglewood," Butts said. "There will be shops in it as well, at least a thousand-car parking garage. That's important because Market Street, which used to be downtown Inglewood, died for a number of reasons, but in large part because there was not sufficient parking."

He says that $250,000 of the project budget is allocated to help businesses and renovate the facades to meet their needs. 

"There's nowhere in the county that has actively been able to invigorate their downtown shopping area and we are proud of that," Butts said of the ongoing work in Inglewood over the last several years.

Business owners have until October to relocate, and Butts said that construction will begin approximately six months later. 

Wong said that despite the initial concern, she sees the change as a fresh start. 

"It [will] be okay for me, some things change," Wong said. "The city looks like they are going to help us a lot."