BY JASON HENRY | jhenry@scng.com
The Intuit Dome is the latest gem in a multibillion-dollar development boom, but the city’s transformation has been far from seamless.
First SoFi stadium changed the landscape of business and housing in Inglewood, now the Intuit Dome, opening soon, will bring larger numbers of visitors to the city, in Inglewood on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. On Century Boulevard, the Intuit Dome looms large on the horizon, the latest glittering monument to the dramatic turnaround Inglewood has made over the past 13 years.
It is yet another milestone in an ongoing revitalization of Inglewood that started with the reopening of The Forum in 2014 and is expected to continue for years, with other such projects as a potential $2 billion automated people mover to connect the three sports and entertainment venues to Inglewood’s downtown and the Metro K Line in time for the Olympics and an overhaul of Market Street, the city’s historic shopping district.
Today, the property, dubbed Pride Plaza, is fenced off, the windows covered in graffiti. Scott’s gumbo shop now operates out of a ghost kitchen in Chino and delivers directly to customers. He hopes to bring Scottle’s back to Inglewood someday, but he says he wouldn’t go anywhere near the stadium this time.Chef/owner Lawrence Scott works on an order in the kitchen of his Scottle’s Gumbo & Grill on Prairie Avenue in Inglewood on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019.
Sweet Red Peach is one of the last remaining tenants in Holly Park Plaza strip mall at the corner of Prairie Avenue and Hardy Street. Most of the businesses left three or four years ago, Plummer said, and the landlord stopped taking on new tenants because the city has indicated it intends to purchase the land for one of the stations for the Inglewood Transit Connector, the automated people mover project that city officials hope will alleviate the traffic nightmare around its popular venues.
SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome have been clear wins for Amin Badrudin, the owner of a 7-Eleven on Prairie Avenue. In 2019, an influx of construction workers made it clear he needed to expand, so he took over a neighboring property, doubled his space and updated the store’s offerings.Traffic and roadwork have created some problems, he said, but the construction at least seems to be easing up.
Black and Latino residents now make up about 87% of the Inglewood’s population, down from 92% in 2010. “When Anaheim gets Disneyland, when San Diego gets the Chargers, you have the same dynamic. You have an increase in property values and no one cries the blues about it,” Butts said. “Whenever you have a community that is majority black and brown, you have this sentiment that you guys can’t have too much good because it’ll hurt you.”
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