By KEITH GRANT
A proposal from developer Ebrahim Shokrian called for the conversion of the Jackson into 40 condo units, with 10 more to be built on nearby property as part of a $14 million project.
The proposal was roundly criticized by many neighbors at a March hearing because to the planÕs lack of proposed parking. Developers intended to create a 46-space parking lot at ground level on the 400 block of East Broadway, directly beneath the 10 planned condo units. That would have left less than one parking space per unit in the project. Long Beach building codes require 1.75 parking spaces per unit, meaning that 88 spaces would be required for the proposed 50 condos in the Jackson plan Ñ nearly double what ShokrianÕs plan called for.
Had the project been approved, condo buyers would have been laying out upward of $400,000 to live in the complex with no guarantee of a parking spot. That would leave many of them competing for parking on the street in an already parking-sparse neighborhood, residents feared.
The plans called for the renovation of the existing four-story Jackson into 11 one-bedroom and 29 two-bedroom units. On the other side of a neighboring garden apartment complex, developers intended to level three homes they have purchased and create the parking lot and 10 two-bedroom apartments.
The 121-bed Jackson has operated for decades as a hotel and catering hall for the Orthodox Jewish community, used primarily during holidays and the Sabbath. Numerous attempts to sell the building in recent years had failed.
