Chinatown Retail/Office/Housing Mixed Use Building

 

 

Time period: Late 19th century and 1970s to present
Location: Urban Chinatowns, especially California's Bay Area and New York City

Asian-style mixed use in the US

Key features
- Housing on top of space for small businesses
- Financed by a mix of foreign and domestic investment

In the United States, Chinatowns are some of the most densely populated neighborhoods. The origins of this dates back to the late 19th century, when racist laws and violence forced Chinese Americans into limited areas in each city, being unwelcome elsewhere. Out of necessity, these neighborhoods contained both housing and businesses and grew upwards as population increased. 

During this era, many tong halls were built.  Financed by tongs (organizations made up of a group of Chinese Americans from the same family, occupation, region, or other affiliation), tong halls had businesses on the lower floors, sleeping rooms on the upper floors, and a meeting hall on the top.  Many continue to remain in use today in the same way.

Cross section of a tong hall, a 19th century type of Chinatown mixed use.  There is symbolic value in putting the organization's meeting hall on the top floor, as well as security considerations.  Also, it would have been structurally challenging to build a large open room on a lower floor of a brick building.
 
However, from the late 1800s up until the 1970s, Chinatowns were shrinking, not building. While in the mid 1800s there was a lot of immigration from China and other Asian countries, racism led to a series of restrictions, starting with the Page Act of 1875 which banned Chinese women, followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned all Chinese immigrants, and finally with the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 that banned anyone from Asia. 
 
Later on in the late 1950s and 1960s, civil rights legislation finally allowed Chinese Americans to move to other parts of the city, and many left Chinatown in search of less overcrowded housing. What finally reversed the decline of Chinatowns was the 1965 Immigration Act, which ended the immigration bans.  Since then, Asian immigration has grown, and by the 2010s, as many immigrants were coming from Asia as were coming from Latin America.  While an increasing number move directly to the suburbs, many still start out in the downtown neighborhoods, where it's easier to get by with limited English skills and also easier to get by without driving.
 
- - - 

Meanwhile, in the late 20th century, city planners were starting to again see the value of mixed use buildings with both homes and businesses. For most of the 20th century, zoning in the United States separated businesses from homes, with even downtown areas having separate office and apartment districts. While it meant less noise, it also meant that downtowns became dangerously empty at night, and also made shopping less convenient. By the late 20th century, efforts were made to create walkable mixed-use neighborhoods by allowing, and sometimes incentivizing or even requiring, new buildings to have both homes and businesses.

However, one challenge has been that banks and other investors were unfamiliar with mixed use and unwilling to take the risk. Some developers end up assuming that ground floor retail will remain vacant when making their budgets. As a result, it's hard to find a big institutional investor willing to fund a retail/office/housing building. 

Getting future homeowners to finance it is also hard, due to restrictions on getting a federally-backed Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan to buy a condo. Because the government doesn't want to be left holding the bag on an unfinished project where a developer runs out of money and walks away in the middle of construction, the FHA requires a large percentage of the condos in a yet-to-be-built condo building to be pre-sold to other buyers before it will back mortgages for buyers of the remaining ones, creating a chicken-and-egg problem.

There are some exceptions though, and one of them is in Chinatowns, where businesses, investors, and residents are familiar with - and expect - mixed use buildings, as these types of buildings on a smaller scale have been common in Chinatown since they began in the 1800s - and are also common in Asian cities.  Additionally, pre-sale of condos is the standard way multifamily housing is financed in China and many other Asian countries, so both builders and buyers are willing to take the risk.

Notably, the retail and office spaces are also sold as condos to individual businesses or investors. This is rare in the US, but is common in Asia.

 
Modern example of how uses in a Chinatown mixed use tower are stacked. Some buildings also have basement parking. 

These buildings are built out of concrete, even the mid-rise, 4-6 story ones. Wood is only used for temporary structures in China, and while a Chinese investor is comfortable buying an unbuilt condo that only exists on paper, an large building made up of 2x4's stretches one's credibility a little too far.
 

In the 1980s and 1990s, changes in Asia such as the transfer of Hong Kong from being a British colony to being part of China, as well as the economic boom in China, led to large amounts of immigration and investment in US Chinatowns. This money was sometimes combined with public dollars to build projects as public-private partnerships, that also contained community facilities and affordable housing. There were challenges, such as those around the Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland, where low income tenants had to go through a lengthy fight to keep their homes when affordability restrictions expired.

Recently there have been some additional business models. In San Francisco, the new International Hotel was built almost 40 years after an unsuccessful fight to save the old I-Hotel. The old I-Hotel had been one of the last buildings in Manilatown, and housed many retired Filipinos. An Asian property developer wanted to tear it down for commercial development, as it was next to the financial district. The fight was a key moment in Asian American history, bringing together activists of different ethinicities. The new I-Hotel contains nonprofit senior housing, community space, and a public parking garage. It was funded by local and federal housing funding.

In Flushing, New York, the development industry includes both Chinese and Chinese American investors, that aims not only to give new immigrants their first home in the US, but also attract those born in other parts of the US wanting a taste of the exciting 24/7 urban life. This has come with its challenges - gentrification has become an issue as older businesses are turned into construction sites, and high-end Chinese restaurants replace cheap ones. 

To meet growing demand without pushing out existing residents and shops, the next stage for this building type might involve more publicly funded examples like San Francisco's I-Hotel, as well as building up suburban Chinatowns into walkable, mixed use neighborhoods.

Data
- Density: 100-300 units/acre plus commercial space (typical commercial floor area ratio of 1-3)
- Typical Lot Size: Varies
- Typical Zoning: Mixed Use
- Construction Type, 19th century: Brick
- Construction Type, Modern: I (Concrete)
- Resident Type: 19th century buildings were mostly rentals, modern buildings are condos sold to homeowners, some units rented out by individual owners.

Where to build 
- Immigrant neighborhoods
- Center of shopping district near public transportation, especially subway stations

Further Reading

Examples of 19th century Chinatown buildings in New York: https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2021/11/19/nbspchinese-buildings-in-chinatown

History of a San Francisco tong: http://georgebros.blogspot.com/2006/02/14-hung-on-tong.html

Pacific Renaissance Plaza, an example in Oakland, California https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Pacific_Renaissance_Plaza_Anti-Eviction_Coalition

More Oakland history https://oaklandlibrary.org/blogs/post/a-brief-history-of-oaklands-madison-square/

International Hotel, San Francisco https://www.ihotel-sf.org/

1990s investment in California from people leaving Hong Kong https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-01-23-mn-21209-story.html

Article on real estate market in Flushing, NY https://www.brickunderground.com/buy/buy-curious-flushing-queens-transportation-condos-houses

Article in Hong Kong press about immigrants buying condos in Flushing https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2109857/flushing-new-york-draws-mainland-buyers-asian-inspired-condo

2020s development in Flushing https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/12/29/how-flushing-became-a-hotbed-for-development/

Gentrification issues in Flushing https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/13/flushing-queens-gentrification-luxury-developments 

Gentrification issues in other Chinatowns https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/14/chinatown-rapid-luxury-development.html

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