Ports Of Call Los Angeles

The shabby seaside Ports O' Call Village tourist spot would be demolished and replaced by upscale development as part of a long-awaited San Pedro revitalization project. That radical revision of the 42-year-old collection of stores and restaurants is outlined in a long-awaited report that is expected to be unveiled at a Port of Los Angeles hearing today.

Struggling Ports O' Call Village shopping center in San Pedro may get a make-over now that a citizens committee has recommended a well-known real estate company to oversee a substantial redevelopment project. The 45-acre project includes the half-vacant Ports O' Call complex as well as the former Unocal tank farm nearby on 22nd Street--both of which are owned by the Port of Los Angeles.

There was a time when Edward Ko gazed through the windows of his store, Candy Town, and saw more than a dozen school buses loaded with children. There was a time when the shop, full of novelty and imported candy, was so crowded that customers lined up to get inside. Now, years later, only an occasional customer visits his well-stocked shop. Ko and a few other shop owners are the last survivors at the languishing Ports O' Call Village shopping center in San Pedro.

Los Angeles port authorities on Tuesday unveiled a short-term plan to revitalize the long-neglected seaside Ports O' Call Village tourist attraction by razing up to 10 buildings to create "windows to the water." The plan calls for a park and amphitheater, and installation of a pedestrian bridge linking the eclectic cluster of shops and restaurants with downtown San Pedro. The project would take six months to complete.

A judge on Tuesday cleared the way for the Port of Los Angeles to redevelop a deteriorating tourist attraction in the harbor that has steadily lost revenue for almost a decade. Los Angeles Municipal Judge Soussan G. Bruguera ruled that Ports of Call, the collection of waterfront shops and restaurants in San Pedro, must be returned to the city by the property's main leaseholder. In 1975, the Harbor Department entered into a 40-year agreement with Ports of Call Restaurant Corp.