Mixed Use

A proposal to build a $1-billion mini-city at the site of the old Pike Amusement Park won the enthusiastic backing Tuesday of the Long Beach City Council, which voted to amend the local coastal plan to clear the way for the project. The plans to construct an 11-building, mixed-use project that would eventually employ 8,000 people must still go before the state Coastal Commission and be reviewed in detail by Long Beach. The project, a venture of the Ratkovich Co. and Enterprise Development West, would be built over a 13-year period, with ground-breaking scheduled for 1990.

A proposal for two skyscrapers that would flank the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood gained the approval of the city's planning department Tuesday despite push-back from dozens of disgruntled residents. The Millennium Hollywood plans are the most ambitious in a string of revitalization projects in the area, including the W Hotel and the Hollywood & Highland Center. The $664-million mixed-use development could include more than 1 million square feet of apartment, office and retail space.

On the worst days, Keith Kang's commute from his home in Corona to his graphic design business in Fullerton could almost equal a quarter of the workday. So when he learned about SoCo Walk, a mixed-use project in downtown Fullerton that opened in late 2006, he thought he had found a perfect solution. Kang and his wife grabbed one of the town homes and now run their business on the first floor. But the experiment in urban living isn't working out the way Kang had imagined. Business is suffering because the project wasn't well planned, he said.

A big empty lot north of Los Angeles International Airport in Westchester is getting an upgrade: $105 million worth of apartments and shops. Work has begun on a 260-unit complex near the southwest corner of Manchester Avenue and Rayford Drive called Playa Del Oro West, developer Decron Properties Corp. said. The development is the second phase of a project Decron began in 2002 with the purchase of 13 acres at Manchester and Lincoln Boulevard that included a 12-story hotel previously known as the Furama and before that as the Airport Marina Hotel.

Your article, "Senior Citizen Housing, Stores Proposed on Site" in Sherman Oaks disregarded the architects responsible for the design concept. GMP Architects originated the idea of mixed-use for this site. MONIKA MOSES Los Angeles Moses wrote as a principal of GMP Architects .

Mayor Tom Bradley on Wednesday borrowed an idea from an earlier era when city dwellers walked downstairs to the grocery store in their apartment building. Espousing a concept finding increasing favor with urban planners, the mayor proposed changing city law to allow development of so-called "mixed-use" projects to provide housing, commercial and parking facilities under one roof. Rather than having to drive several miles to the store, residents could walk to shopping or work in neighborhoods where apartments and shops are side by side or in the same building.

A busy day for George Shohet involves work, exercise, nightlife, a meal out and errands -- all accomplished without getting into a car. The 43-year-old lawyer and film producer works at home in his condominium at Venice Renaissance, a white building near the beach that is filled with stores and restaurants at street level and housing above. After the slender 6-footer finishes a jog on the beach, his housekeeper arrives at 9 a.m.

The brouhaha over the 81st and Vermont Avenue mixed-use project is fueled more by rhetoric than reality. Talk of empowerment, economic development and high government subsidies by the opposition are powerful buzzwords. These interests often conflict and are hard to reconcile. Yet, they have been effectively balanced in the First Interstate project. Private sector financing--equity and debt--for commercial development is virtually nonexistent for inner-city retail projects. A stand-alone commercial development, therefore, requires public financing greater than the proposed project and beyond what is currently feasible to get. This mixed-use development offers a financially sound alternative, and serves as a prototype for balancing the housing and retail needs of the inner city.

Construction is set to begin on the first phase of a massive housing development that is part of the city of Irvine's long-awaited Great Park project. A total of 726 single-family homes and detached condominium units are planned for Pavilion Park, which will be the first part of the Great Park Neighborhoods development. This week, eight major home builders bought land in this first offering from master developer FivePoint Communities Inc. Construction of the new homes, priced from the high $600,000 range to $1.2 million, is expected to begin this month.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to move its downtown Los Angeles offices in a 15-year deal with landlord Brookfield Office Properties Inc. As part of its agreement to rent six floors -- about 135,000 square feet -- the firm will have its PwC logo attached to the top of the 53-story building at 601 S. Figueroa St. About 1,450 employees will move to the new offices in May from 350 S. Grand Ave. The new quarters will have less...

Ambitious plans have been unveiled for a 3.3-million-square-foot development that would bring a college, hotel, offices and apartments to the fashion district of downtown Los Angeles. The owners of about three blocks' worth of faded commercial properties hope to build a project valued between $500 million and $1 billion called the City Market of Los Angeles. It would rise in an area that once housed wholesale produce businesses and is now home mostly to garment industry shops and warehouses.

One of L.A.'s most active apartment developers has purchased the site of the Wertz Brothers Antique Mart in Santa Monica as dramatic changes are planned for properties near a future stop on the light rail Expo Line. Wertz Realty Investments sold the antique store building and parking lot at 1613 Lincoln Blvd. to Century West Partners for more than $11 million, public documents indicate. Century West plans to incorporate the site into its proposed Lincoln Boulevard Collection, which is to be comprised of four apartment buildings on Lincoln Boulevard with a combined total of 421 units.

Work has begun on a $30-million apartment and retail complex in Palms near a planned station for the Expo Line, which will connect downtown Los Angeles with Santa Monica. Frost/Chaddock Developers of Los Angeles is building the five-story complex at 3425 Motor Ave., about a quarter of a mile from a light rail station at Motor and National Boulevard that is scheduled to open in 2016. The 115-unit project is to house studio and one-bedroom apartments intended to appeal to young professionals.

Civic leaders gathered last week to commemorate the beginning of construction on BLVD 6200, a long-anticipated $500-million apartment and retail complex in Hollywood. Work is underway at 6201 Hollywood Blvd. on former parking lots next to the Pantages Theater, where more than 500 apartments are being built in four buildings. The complex will have 74,000 square feet of retail space for shops and restaurants, and underground parking for 1,300 cars. BLVD 6200, which was planned in the mid-2000s, is being developed by DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Clarett West Development.

Developer Sonny Astani has bought property on Wilshire Boulevard west of downtown Los Angeles where he plans to build a $60-million apartment and retail complex. The six-story, 220-unit development called the Valencia will rise at the northwest corner of Wilshire and Valencia Street, Astani said. He paid Horacio Carlso Vignali $7.6 million for the 1.5-acre site now occupied by vacant commercial buildings and a parking lot. Work on the Valencia is set to begin in April and be finished by the end of 2014.

Construction has kicked off on a $63-million apartment and shopping complex near a light-rail station on the edge of downtown Culver City as developers move to capitalize on the new Expo Line. The six-story project is being built by Santa Monica-based apartment landlord NMS Properties. The development at 9901 Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles, across the street from Culver City, will be known as NMS@Culver City. It will house 131 units over restaurants and shops. The complex is across from the Kirk Douglas Theatre and Sony Pictures Plaza office building.

During eight years in office, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa staked much of his legacy on transportation. He lobbied Washington for millions of dollars in federal funding. He oversaw the addition of 150 miles of bike lanes. And, five years ago, he won voter approval of Measure R, the countywide half-cent sales tax expected to raise more than $30 billion over 30 years for a dozen new transportation projects. The challenge for the next mayor, experts say, will be the nuts and bolts: repaving the city's broken streets and sidewalks, completing a surge of bus and rail projects and securing more transportation funding.

CHAD EVERETT and his wife, Shelby Grant Everett, have put the Spanish-style, Chatsworth home they built in 1971 on the market for $2.85 million and are building a new residence for themselves in Chandler, Ariz. "I have a picture ('Heroes Stand Alone') coming out in June and (a pilot for) a series on ABC, so I'm not getting out of the business," the actor quickly noted about his move to Arizona. "Assuming the series goes, we'll be in Florida half the year, so it isn't necessary to live here."

The parking lot behind Hollywood landmark restaurant Musso & Frank Grill was purchased by a Los Angeles developer who intends to build a mixed-use complex on the site. Champion Real Estate Co. bought the paved 1.1-acre site behind the Hollywood Boulevard restaurant and between Cherokee and Las Palmas avenues from Common Fund. The price was not disclosed, but Hollywood real estate experts familiar with the property valued it at nearly $10 million. Last year, Champion paid $20 million for a 2.76-acre property at the northeast corner of Highland and Selma avenues, which it also intends to develop.

Construction will begin this month on One Santa Fe, a long-anticipated $160-million apartment, office and retail development in the arts district of downtown Los Angeles. The 790,000-square-foot complex will rise on four acres of land on Santa Fe Avenue between 1st and 4th streets that was leased from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Plans by Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan call for 438 apartments and 78,620 square feet of office and retail space, along with nearly 50,000 square feet of public outdoor space.