To achieve its social purpose, the Fund intends to purchase, lease, and manage, directly or indirectly, real estate in and around the Target Area (see map below). Currently, LTCIF has conducted preliminary research on potential properties, and will provide updates to the community and investors in the future.
Press Release
September 12, 2025
“HOW DO YOU FIGHT GENTRIFICATION?”
This was the question a small group of Little Tokyo activists asked themselves about 7 years ago as they met in a suite at the Teramachi Condominiums. The group came together out of concern that a number of small businesses, some legacy businesses, were being priced out of the neighborhood. After scratching their heads and contemplating various scenarios such as land trusts and co-ops, the group came up with something akin to a “community controlled real estate investment trust” which could attract investors and seek to purchase Little Tokyo commercial properties with the added benefit of keeping rents under control. Such an entity had never existed before – but the thinking among the group members was “If you own it – you can control it” and to try to do something to fight gentrification is better than doing nothing.
Thus, the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund (LTCIF) was started with the formation of a Board of Directors to launch the effort. According to Bill Watanabe, one of the original group members and now the Board President, “We knew normal community folks, meaning not the uber-wealthy types, would like to participate in such a venture and become “owners of Little Tokyo property” and also would have an interest to invest to help preserve the historic ethnic neighborhood, so we designed the LTCIF to have two levels of investment – one at the $1,000 level and a second at the $10,000 level. We did a lot of informational and outreach gatherings and we were getting investors to buy into the concept – but then Covid 19 came and put the kabosh on in-person outreach meetings. But nevertheless, we did manage to raise just under $1 million – not enough to buy a property outright but enough to be in the game.”
Glenn Sanada, another LTCIF Board member stated, “A property came up for sale right on First Street in the historic core of Little Tokyo and we approached a local foundation to help us buy the property and keep it out of the hands of some outside investor who didn’t care about Little Tokyo and only cared about making money. The foundation board saw the importance of keeping this valuable historic property under community control and supported our request which allowed us to buy the building. When we closed escrow on August 18, 2025 the LTCIF board members were very excited and elated after these many years of trying to own a piece of Little Tokyo.”
The property is located at 323 E. First St. and has 3 small business tenants and also has office spaces on the 2nd floor. According to Board member Dr. Dean Toji, ” We are planning a community public celebration sometime in November to let people know what we are up to, and to encourage more investors to support the work of LTCIF.”
Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund
The Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund was also featured on KCAL News on September 17, 2025.
Click here to view.