DOWNTOWN NEWS AND UPDATES

[Kenny]

LOL, I did this little scheme when they announced the renovation of Dodger Stadium for year-round activities, restaurants, shops etc.
It would peek the interest of the San Gabriel/Pasadena area, and I would totally pay $5 for a day pass than the $15 for parking.

The "Loop" doesn't exist I think any place else, but then again, we do things differently here in L.A.

[milquetoast]

No, trains usually run right along side the Stadiums elsewhere so yes, we do do things differently. L A X is a good example.

Of course it's up the hill so it would be difficult to re-route.

(The west side of the parking lot sure looks like a nice place to put a serious football stadium)

[pesto]

Too much effort, too much money. The Dodger Trolley from Union Station is the solution. Match this up with free-rides for those who drink or dine in DT and you have something that can actually be implemented within weeks and helps everyone.

IF AND WHEN the major condo/apartment plans get more serious, then a people-mover suitable for hillsides (paid for by Dodgers, right Klam?) becomes viable.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by pesto

Too much effort, too much money. The Dodger Trolley from Union Station is the solution. Match this up with free-rides for those who drink or dine in DT and you have something that can actually be implemented within weeks and helps everyone.

IF AND WHEN the major condo/apartment plans get more serious, then a people-mover suitable for hillsides (paid for by Dodgers, right Klam?) becomes viable.

Why did they stop the Dodger Trolley? low ridership?

[pesto]

not at all. The MTA/City refused to pay for it and wanted the Dodgers to do so. The Dodgers said that public transportation is the city's responsibility and they aren't going to pay for it any more than they pay for the buses that go there (and, of course, they lose money on parking when people take the trolley, so you couldn't expect them to be enthusiastic about it).

I tend to agree with the Dodgers, since MTA gets the great majority of the benefit (increased ridership to Union Station) with no contribution whatsoever if the Dodgers pay. But others took the MTA's side.

[Westsidelife]

The abandoned building across the street from Staples Center and the Convention Center could soon house three restaurants, including a Hooters!

http://www.blogdowntown.com/2010/01/...staples-center

[pesto]

The beginning of a good idea. LA Live is generally over-priced and needs some competition to get them real. Just make sure that the style is consitent with the hood.

Next, put some more mid-range small dining on 12th and Pico and some glitzy discount clothing stores that lead into the garment district. A little bit of Melrose?

And where's the trolley to Broadway and the Music Center? The conventioneers and tourists are coming and we want them to be impressed, not bored or horrified by high prices.

[VZN]

Great news.

And before anybody goes "Oh no, not a Hooters! " Keep in mind that a Hooters is only going to be just one of the restaurants there, so that allows for 3 other original franchises to be in the same building. And it's exactly what L.A. Live needs if it's going to be a "Sports and Entertainment" center.

[dachacon]

YAY HOOTERS!!!

[pesto]

In all honesty, LA does not have a Hooter shortage pretty much anywhere.

And I guess we have our share of Big Wangs also (DT has a Grand one)

[Fern~Fern*]

Originally Posted by dachacon

YAY HOOTERS!!!

^ Looks like someone is getting a stiffy!

[VZN]

Damn, wrong thread.

[Fern~Fern*]

Originally Posted by VZN

Damn, wrong thread.

^ What, Hooter's caught you're attention or something?

[losangelino]

Banco Popular Building to Become Apartments

Faded Property at Fourth and Spring to Become Apartments


The building opened in 1903. It later became known as the Banco Popular building, though many Downtowners knew it as the longtime home of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Posted: Monday, February 27, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 3:49 pm, Fri Feb 24, 2012.

by Ryan Vaillancourt | 2 comments

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Developer Allen Gross has reached an agreement to buy the Herman H. Hellman building and plans to convert the 1903 former bank facility, which later housed the Community Redevelopment Agency, into 212 apartments.

The project could breath new life into the once luxurious but now faded structure at 354 S. Spring St. It would mark the first start on a residential conversion in the Old Bank District in seven years.

Gross and his wife, Arax Harutunian, run the firm Neighborhood Effort. The company developed the Blackstone Lofts at 901 S. Broadway and the Los Altos Apartments on Wilshire Boulevard, a few miles west of Downtown. They are in escrow with seller Jamison Properties and expect to complete the purchase of the Hellman building, better known today as the Banco Popular building, this year. Gross would not be more specific in terms of timing.

“We are grateful at the potential of being entrusted with such a cherished, historical building,” said Gross, who is already working with a preservation consultant to have the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gross is awaiting city approvals, along with the close of escrow, to proceed with the conversion. He said a project cost has not been determined, though he expects funding will come from a mix of private and public sources including tax incentives. He plans to set aside about 20% of the units for affordable housing.

A zoning administrator is expected to consider the proposal in the next two months. At that hearing, the city will weigh granting the project an exception to a rule in the 13-year-old adaptive reuse ordinance. The ordinance demands that, in the case of residential conversions, units in a building must average at least 750 square feet.

Satisfying that 750-square-foot average would mean the Banco Popular Building could have no more than 178 apartments. Neighborhood Effort’s proposal instead calls for 212 units averaging 610 square feet. They would range from 481-1,576 square feet, said Elizabeth Peterson Gower, whose land-use firm the Elizabeth Peterson Group is representing Neighborhood Effort.

Peterson said the size requirements might have made sense when officials were writing the ordinance in the late 1990s, but current market conditions merit a change to the rules. Today, Downtown is attracting single, young renters who seek smaller units for lower rents, she said.

Hamid Behdad, a developer who previously served as the city’s adaptive reuse czar and helped write and implement the ordinance, including the size rules, agrees that it is time for a change. He said the decision to prohibit small units was intended to discourage the conversion of historic commercial buildings into low-income, single room occupancy hotels. Now, he said, if the city wants to stimulate development, it should cater to landlords’ frequent preference for smaller apartments, which translate to higher lease rates per square foot.

“With the realities of today’s market, to limit units in terms of size, in my opinion, is no longer valid,” he said.

The city may ultimately agree with Behdad and Peterson. The city zoning administrator already has the authority to approve projects that don’t meet the adaptive reuse ordinance’s minimum size standards. In fact, Neighborhood Effort’s most recent project — the transformation of the Blackstone, which included units as small as 400 square feet — was granted the exception.

The size rules are up for potential revision by the city Planning Department, which is reviewing the adaptive reuse ordinance and considering updates. Peterson said Neighborhood Effort’s project, however, will likely go to the zoning administrator before the Planning Department alters the ordinance.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

this really completes that area and will be huge. if we could only get those unsightly parking lots and garages on spring between 1st and 4th replaced with apartments and mixed use development, spring would be golden

[pesto]

Originally Posted by losangelino

Banco Popular Building to Become Apartments

Faded Property at Fourth and Spring to Become Apartments


The building opened in 1903. It later became known as the Banco Popular building, though many Downtowners knew it as the longtime home of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Posted: Monday, February 27, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 3:49 pm, Fri Feb 24, 2012.

by Ryan Vaillancourt | 2 comments

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Developer Allen Gross has reached an agreement to buy the Herman H. Hellman building and plans to convert the 1903 former bank facility, which later housed the Community Redevelopment Agency, into 212 apartments.

The project could breath new life into the once luxurious but now faded structure at 354 S. Spring St. It would mark the first start on a residential conversion in the Old Bank District in seven years.

Gross and his wife, Arax Harutunian, run the firm Neighborhood Effort. The company developed the Blackstone Lofts at 901 S. Broadway and the Los Altos Apartments on Wilshire Boulevard, a few miles west of Downtown. They are in escrow with seller Jamison Properties and expect to complete the purchase of the Hellman building, better known today as the Banco Popular building, this year. Gross would not be more specific in terms of timing.

“We are grateful at the potential of being entrusted with such a cherished, historical building,” said Gross, who is already working with a preservation consultant to have the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gross is awaiting city approvals, along with the close of escrow, to proceed with the conversion. He said a project cost has not been determined, though he expects funding will come from a mix of private and public sources including tax incentives. He plans to set aside about 20% of the units for affordable housing.

A zoning administrator is expected to consider the proposal in the next two months. At that hearing, the city will weigh granting the project an exception to a rule in the 13-year-old adaptive reuse ordinance. The ordinance demands that, in the case of residential conversions, units in a building must average at least 750 square feet.

Satisfying that 750-square-foot average would mean the Banco Popular Building could have no more than 178 apartments. Neighborhood Effort’s proposal instead calls for 212 units averaging 610 square feet. They would range from 481-1,576 square feet, said Elizabeth Peterson Gower, whose land-use firm the Elizabeth Peterson Group is representing Neighborhood Effort.

Peterson said the size requirements might have made sense when officials were writing the ordinance in the late 1990s, but current market conditions merit a change to the rules. Today, Downtown is attracting single, young renters who seek smaller units for lower rents, she said.

Hamid Behdad, a developer who previously served as the city’s adaptive reuse czar and helped write and implement the ordinance, including the size rules, agrees that it is time for a change. He said the decision to prohibit small units was intended to discourage the conversion of historic commercial buildings into low-income, single room occupancy hotels. Now, he said, if the city wants to stimulate development, it should cater to landlords’ frequent preference for smaller apartments, which translate to higher lease rates per square foot.

“With the realities of today’s market, to limit units in terms of size, in my opinion, is no longer valid,” he said.

The city may ultimately agree with Behdad and Peterson. The city zoning administrator already has the authority to approve projects that don’t meet the adaptive reuse ordinance’s minimum size standards. In fact, Neighborhood Effort’s most recent project — the transformation of the Blackstone, which included units as small as 400 square feet — was granted the exception.

The size rules are up for potential revision by the city Planning Department, which is reviewing the adaptive reuse ordinance and considering updates. Peterson said Neighborhood Effort’s project, however, will likely go to the zoning administrator before the Planning Department alters the ordinance.

I'm not sure that "catering to landlord's wishes" for more money per sq. foot is a legitimate driving factor in development planning. This is true everywhere, isn't it? In DT it really means giving the poor an opportunity to stay in neighborhoods that have real potential for becoming gentrified. Whether this is what DT needs I will leave for others to judge.

[ErnCas]

Twenty-first century Los Angeles needs a city center aimed at being more than a gentrified hood.
Overall, both the well-off and those qualifying for low income housing, need an accessible neighborhood to adopt the urban lifestyle, either if the decision comes from choice or necessity. Downtown has to make the necessary changes in zoning and planning to allow anyone alive enough to realize the flaws of the suburban lifestyle to adopt the urban one.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by ErnCas

Twenty-first century Los Angeles needs a city center aimed at being more than a gentrified hood.
Overall, both the well-off and those qualifying for low income housing, need an accessible neighborhood to adopt the urban lifestyle, either if the decision comes from choice or necessity. Downtown has to make the necessary changes in zoning and planning to allow anyone alive enough to realize the flaws of the suburban lifestyle to adopt the urban one.

Pretty much everywhere in the world agrees with your conclusion and disagrees with your method of implementing it. London (East End vs. Knightsbridge); NY (LES vs. upper east side); Madrid (Salamanca vs. Malasano among others). the list is basically endless; they all have rich, middle and poor 'hoods separate from each other, normally with extensive middle income areas in between.

In general, this seems to be a fixation of some on this thread: let's put everything in DT, within blocks of each other: football, conventions, baseball; high-end, middle and affordable shopping; luxury, middle, affordable and homeless shelters; welfare, boutique and luxury hotels, etc. I would suggest that this is the opposite of planning.

Greater density here basically allows the slumlords to squeeze more profit out of dilapidated buildings while adding nothing for the city but more welfare costs. How does this help DT again?

n any event,

[ErnCas]

You are right; most of us want downtown to have a mix of everything society needs and expects of a real neighborhood.

At large, every urban city effectively possesses the variants of the socioeconomic spectrum and what comes with it-the list you mentioned. However, all things need their own place. Downtown is growing organically, developing according to the actual and realistically-perceived needs and desires of its residents and vicinity. Downtown is getting a football stadium, a museum, and a grocery store, but they are all in their respective zones.
The "planning" the city of L.A. did in the past brought us the razing of Bunker Hill, and in metro L.A., places like Irvine... It is okay to say, yes, I want everything there but in orderly fashion? (Organic growth).

Btw, great news from brighamyen.com in case some of you missed it!

Smart & Final (Extra?) Close to Signing Lease at 845 S Figueroa in Downtown LA

[dachacon]

Something that every great city needs is a Marathon!!!

From Blogdowntown, which I will be happily attending and running

http://blogdowntown.com/2012/02/6590...n-only-serious


LA welcomes first 'Beerathon'; only serious drinkers need apply
By HAYLEY FOX
Published: Friday, February 10, 2012, at 04:39PM

Flickr via Cambridge Brewing Company
L.A. to get first annual Beerathon on Mar. 31.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — After five successful years in New York, the "Beerathon" beer marathon is stumbling into Downtown L.A. this March.

What exactly does this Olympics-of-drinking mean to suds lovers?

A $55 registration fee will buy you 26 beers at 26 different Downtown venues, a course map, and a VIP pass that allows for easy access in and out.

Check-in starts at noon on Mar. 31 and your cup runneth over til you can't runneth no more.

There is no pressure to finish all 26 beers, notes the official Beerathon website:

"As macho and tough as you may be, 26 beers is a A LOT of beer. If you can’t finish, don’t. It’s important to drink responsibly. Even in your college-prime, you’ll still have difficulty attempting this task."

Beerathon organizers encourage dressing comfortably for the marathon event, and, where applicable, in team uniforms.

Those who rally a gaggle of 20 or more imbibers will be rewarded by Beerathon with a group discount.

And should you find yourself wondering why you would attempt such a daunting booze feat, Beerathon has the answer:

"Because you’re an American, damn it! We accept challenges – no matter how difficult the odds. But seriously, you’ll have a ton of fun, whether or not you finish."