Qualified Opportunity: Fundrise Commercial Investments in West Adams, Los Angeles (2017–2026)
<p>West Adams has been a contested site for housing rights throughout recent history. In 1945, the California Supreme Court struck down racially restrictive covenants in West Adams’ wealthy Black enclave of Sugar Hill, two years ahead of the national ban. However, in 1954, that same Black community was demolished by the state to make way for the I-10 freeway. Today, West Adams falls under several Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs), a federal program that has offered tax incentives for private real estate investment in designated tracts through 2027. Roughly nine out of the city’s 194 QOZ tracts are situated within or intersect West Adams, including two near the Jefferson Boulevard corridor a mile from LAND’s offices.</p> <p>Harrison Kinnane Smith’s commission for LAND, <em>Qualified Opportunity</em>, focuses on Fundrise, one of the world’s largest real estate private equity investors and platforms, and its instrumentalization of Qualified Opportunity Zones. The artist’s book features photographs and real estate data detailing every commercial property purchased by Fundrise in the Jefferson Boulevard corridor of central Los Angeles since the Opportunity Zone program began in 2017.</p>
Authors: Harrison Kinnane Smith
Contributors: Christopher Mangum-James, Astrid Kayembe