Panorama City Ca Development And Redevelopment

The Northeast Valley Health Corp. showcases its new, larger Women, Infants and Children facility with an open house today. The old WIC building "was impossible," said Deborah Williams, area coordinator for the corporation. "It got to the point that we had to have people wait outside. We didn't have the room."

A Los Angeles residential real estate developer broke ground Wednesday on a $3.5-million, 16-home project in Panorama City. The development on Wentworth Street will be an attempt to stabilize a declining area by razing vacant buildings and replacing them with new homes, said Carlos Mesa, owner of Santa Fe Group, which will build the project. Preliminary design plans call for three- and four-bedroom homes on a tree-lined cul-de-sac, Mesa said.

Gone are the days of shooting hoops at the neighboring Sepulveda Middle School and ferrying league players back and forth for home games. With a new gymnasium tripling the size of the Sepulveda Recreation Center's indoor facilities, the center's adult and youth basketball leagues have a permanent home in a 5,000-square-foot modern building at 8825 Kester Ave.

Cary Lefton and Michael Bollenbacher vow to turn a run-down strip mall into a festive and scenic plaza with colorful storefronts and an outdoor promenade. The new Plaza del Valle will have a Latino theme--appropriate for this community whose population of 59,749 is 60% Latino--and be modeled after Olvera Street Plaza, the Los Angeles replica of a Mexican village market.

Los Angeles housing officials have significantly scaled back an $8-million project that would have brought social services and extensively rehabilitated housing to residents of a blighted part of Blythe Street in Panorama City. A private developer who helped design the project said a lack of support from City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, whose district includes the street, has killed the sweeping effort as it was initially proposed.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are eyeing the former Van Nuys Drive-In site for a new middle school--despite plans by the city to locate a car dealership on the property. The district, which is already facing neighborhood opposition to a planned new high school in Arleta, says it needs to build 13 new schools to relieve classroom overcrowding in the San Fernando Valley.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion Wednesday to ask the state to expand the Northeast Valley Enterprise Zone to include portions of the former General Motors site and the Carnation Dairy plant on Van Nuys Boulevard. Enterprise zones are part of a state program to encourage economic activity in depressed areas. The city has five such zones, including the one in the northeast Valley.

Three national retailers have joined Mann Theatres as anchors in what would be the northeast Valley's largest shopping and industrial complex being planned on the site of the former General Motors assembly plant, sources close to the project confirmed Tuesday.

Sledgehammers chipped away Thursday morning at the worn facade of the old Panorama Bowl as politicians, business people and community groups celebrated the groundbreaking of a new roller- and ice-skating center on Van Nuys Boulevard. The $2.5-million, 50,000-square-foot Recreation World Panorama City is scheduled to open early next year after the building has been refurbished and retrofitted to meet current earthquake standards.

For Greg Gagnon, who saw friends disappear and popular businesses close after the General Motors plant become a vacant wasteland in 1992, even a development plan that still lacks details sounded good Monday. "It's better than having open land sitting there," said Gagnon, 44, a Panorama City resident for 16 years. "Any new businesses in Panorama City should help. At least it opens new jobs . . . hopefully."

Two years after the Los Angeles City Council took the first step to create a redevelopment area encompassing 6,835 acres of the northeast San Fernando Valley, the proposal has bogged down, sharply dividing a citizens panel. The plan for the city's largest redevelopment area is more than a year behind schedule, and the group of local residents and merchants the council formed to offer advice appears deadlocked over whether the plan should go forward.

Mayor Richard Riordan will break ground this morning at the former General Motors Plant in Panorama City for a company that manufactures Walt Disney and Warner Bros. apparel. The groundbreaking ceremony for Jerry Leigh--which is currently located in East Los Angeles--will be held at 10:30 a.m. at 7860 Nelson Road. Developers Robert D. Voit and Daniel F. Selleck are scheduled to attend. By mid-2000, Jerry Leigh will move its headquarters to the new 190,000-square-foot Panorama City plant.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are eyeing the former Van Nuys Drive-In site for a new middle school--despite plans by the city to locate a car dealership on the property. The district, which is already facing neighborhood opposition to a planned new high school in Arleta, says it needs to build 13 new schools to relieve classroom overcrowding in the San Fernando Valley.

Kaiser Permanente has agreed in principle to rebuild its quake-damaged Panorama City hospital rather than abandon the site, according to sources familiar with its plans. Representatives from Kaiser and federal and state agencies are set to negotiate the details of the deal over the next several weeks. While Kaiser, the nation's largest health maintenance organization, has yet to sign a final agreement, a spokeswoman said the company is "very optimistic" about the prospect.

The name of the store is 'Party City' and Los Angeles officials, aptly enough, think its opening is something to celebrate. Party City is to open Monday at the former General Motors site in Panorama City, the first of 35 stores to open on the site of a mothballed manufacturing plant that once symbolized the decline of the San Fernando Valley's blue-collar middle class.

Construction of a new headquarters for Ricon Corp. is underway at the former Panorama City site of General Motors Corp. Ricon said it plans to move from five buildings in Pacoima to the new complex by year's end, consolidating its operations in the $12-million, 600,000-square-foot facility. The 65-acre site was developed by Poliquin Kellogg Design Group of Woodland Hills. The facility will serve both as a manufacturing plant and headquarters for Ricon's 350 workers.

The derby of developers hoping to build on the abandoned General Motors site in Panorama City has been narrowed to four major Southland companies, including a Woodland Hills firm that lists actor Tom Selleck as a partner and a Brentwood corporation headed by a close ally of Mayor Richard Riordan, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Also on the short list is an Orange County company whose president once owned the Seattle Mariners baseball team, sources said.

Since the General Motors plant in Panorama City closed in August, 1992, eliminating 2,600 jobs, city officials have worked with GM representatives to try to find a buyer for the 100-acre plant in hopes of replacing some of the lost jobs. The plant's closure sent a ripple through the area's economy, dramatically reducing business in area restaurants, bars and shops.

Promising a part of the American dream to first-time home buyers, City Councilman Richard Alarcon and housing developers broke ground Wednesday for a low-cost housing project. Construction of 28 two-story homes on 2 1/2 acres at the southwest corner of Tupper Street and Tobias Avenue will begin almost immediately, said Robert Vinson, who with partner Michael Mekeel proposed the development.