Wayne Ratkovich

It was hailed as a crowning achievement for Los Angeles in the early 1970s - an indoor shopping mall that filled an entire downtown block and also boasted a plush hotel and a high-rise office building. For years, tourists flocked to the premier address. These days, however, Macy's Plaza has devolved into a dated, downscale relic and gets little love, even at the busy intersection of 7th and Flower streets. The mammoth complex can reclaim star status, its new owner said, but only after several multimillion-dollar improvements and radical surgery to open its fortress-like exterior.

It was hailed as a crowning achievement for Los Angeles in the early 1970s - an indoor shopping mall that filled an entire downtown block and also boasted a plush hotel and a high-rise office building. For years, tourists flocked to the premier address. These days, however, Macy's Plaza has devolved into a dated, downscale relic and gets little love, even at the busy intersection of 7th and Flower streets. The mammoth complex can reclaim star status, its new owner said, but only after several multimillion-dollar improvements and radical surgery to open its fortress-like exterior.

An influential Los Angeles developer has been named project manager of a proposal to convert the historic Alex Theatre into a performing arts center. The city task force charged with determining the future of the Alex has hired Wayne Ratkovich, president of the Ratkovich Co., to develop a business plan and estimated cost of renovating the 1925 movie house at 216 N. Brand Blvd.

Move over, Spruce Goose. Here comes YouTube. Internet video site YouTube and marketing agency Earthbound Media Group have agreed to be the first tenants at the Hercules Campus, an office park being created by Los Angeles developer Wayne Ratkovich from buildings in Playa Vista that were once the hub of aerospace giant Hughes Aircraft Co. YouTube will take over a 41,000-square-foot warehouse and office. Earthbound Media will move its headquarters from Orange County to a 15,000-square-foot building where technicians assembled the cockpit for the legendary Hughes H-4 Hercules seaplane, commonly known as the Spruce Goose.

Developer Wayne Ratkovich had little idea 30 years ago when he and his partners bought an unwanted office building in downtown Los Angeles that a forgotten gem lay waiting. The office market at the time was hot for glass and steel towers, and to hell with the old piles such as the Art Deco-style James Oviatt Building. The former UCLA football player in his 30s wasn't sure exactly what "Art Deco" encompassed. What he uncovered was an architectural treasure that he proceeded to bring back to life.

Move over, Spruce Goose. Here comes YouTube. Internet video site YouTube and marketing agency Earthbound Media Group have agreed to be the first tenants at the Hercules Campus, an office park being created by Los Angeles developer Wayne Ratkovich from buildings in Playa Vista that were once the hub of aerospace giant Hughes Aircraft Co. YouTube will take over a 41,000-square-foot warehouse and office. Earthbound Media will move its headquarters from Orange County to a 15,000-square-foot building where technicians assembled the cockpit for the legendary Hughes H-4 Hercules seaplane, commonly known as the Spruce Goose.

The decaying former headquarters of aviation giant Howard Hughes will be turned into an office campus for creative tenants as part of a $50-million makeover of the famous operation at Playa Vista. The complex includes the enormous hangar where Hughes built his infamous Spruce Goose airplane but is now used mostly as a sound stage for movie and television production. The seven-story structure will be upgraded to contain five sound stages that could be used simultaneously, new owner Wayne Ratkovich said.

We are writing to express our disappointment in Sam Hall Kaplan's column, "A Lesson for Pershing Square." We are concerned that Kaplan has criticized the approach that is being launched to revitalize Pershing Square without understanding the planning process currently being developed by the Pershing Square Management Assn., the Community Redevelopment Agency and the Department of Recreation and Parks. These groups are dedicated to exactly the same thoughtful process for revitalization that Kaplan advocates.

Variety, a venerable trade publication for the entertainment business, agreed Thursday to move its offices a few blocks down Wilshire Boulevard to a high-rise across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that will be renamed the Variety Building. "After 20 years at our current location, we need more space" for the publication, said Michael Speier, executive editor of news at Variety. The daily newspaper and parent company Reed Business Information should move to their new quarters by year-end, said Wayne Ratkovich, president of Ratkovich Co., owner of the 30-story tower at 5900 Wilshire Blvd.

Renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, announced last fall as a $175-million to $200-million project, is being scaled back "to about half that magnitude," according to the new real estate developer retained by the Coliseum's private managers. Developer Wayne Ratkovich said he hopes to launch work on the renovation by January, 1993--as was originally promised--but acknowledged it would take "a minor miracle" to do so.

Behind a chain-link fence next to a parking structure at an office park in the San Gabriel Valley sit five softly humming gray boxes that could change the way homes and offices are powered. On Tuesday, the boxes ? each somewhat bigger than an SUV ? will begin generating enough electricity to power about a quarter of the complex, saving the property owner about $500,000 a year in electricity bills. The Energy Servers use fuel-cell technology to create low-emission electricity.

The decaying former headquarters of aviation giant Howard Hughes will be turned into an office campus for creative tenants as part of a $50-million makeover of the famous operation at Playa Vista. The complex includes the enormous hangar where Hughes built his infamous Spruce Goose airplane but is now used mostly as a sound stage for movie and television production. The seven-story structure will be upgraded to contain five sound stages that could be used simultaneously, new owner Wayne Ratkovich said.

Developer Wayne Ratkovich had little idea 30 years ago when he and his partners bought an unwanted office building in downtown Los Angeles that a forgotten gem lay waiting. The office market at the time was hot for glass and steel towers, and to hell with the old piles such as the Art Deco-style James Oviatt Building. The former UCLA football player in his 30s wasn't sure exactly what "Art Deco" encompassed. What he uncovered was an architectural treasure that he proceeded to bring back to life.

Variety, a venerable trade publication for the entertainment business, agreed Thursday to move its offices a few blocks down Wilshire Boulevard to a high-rise across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that will be renamed the Variety Building. "After 20 years at our current location, we need more space" for the publication, said Michael Speier, executive editor of news at Variety. The daily newspaper and parent company Reed Business Information should move to their new quarters by year-end, said Wayne Ratkovich, president of Ratkovich Co., owner of the 30-story tower at 5900 Wilshire Blvd.

Los Angeles real estate developer and investor Wayne Ratkovich has returned to the downtown area with the $30-million purchase of an office building at 800 Wilshire Blvd. In the late 1970s Ratkovich bought and restored two historic properties--the Fine Arts and the Oviatt buildings -- in the central business district. He sold them by the early 1980s and moved on to renovate historic properties in the Wilshire Center including the Wiltern Theater and Chapman Market.

A campus best known as a backdrop for the exploits of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is getting a new life. Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. has invested $27.5 million to acquire a stake in the 1-million-square-foot Alhambra office park, giving partner Wayne Ratkovich the capital to begin new development on the 45-acre site. Connecticut General, a subsidiary of Cigna Corp., has replaced Lehman Bros. and Wachovia Securities as equity partners with Ratkovich's Los Angeles-based Ratkovich Co.

Wayne Ratkovich has spent 16 years saving historic buildings from wrecking balls and mini-mall developers. Now he's after a four-mile stretch of an avenue where Hollywood stars once slept, ate, danced and even mourned. In a city known more for its freeways and hamburger stands than for landmark buildings, Ratkovich is an anomaly among developers--going for style and history instead of the fast buck--according to critics, architects and developers from Boston to New York.

Behind a chain-link fence next to a parking structure at an office park in the San Gabriel Valley sit five softly humming gray boxes that could change the way homes and offices are powered. On Tuesday, the boxes ? each somewhat bigger than an SUV ? will begin generating enough electricity to power about a quarter of the complex, saving the property owner about $500,000 a year in electricity bills. The Energy Servers use fuel-cell technology to create low-emission electricity.

Renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, announced last fall as a $175-million to $200-million project, is being scaled back "to about half that magnitude," according to the new real estate developer retained by the Coliseum's private managers. Developer Wayne Ratkovich said he hopes to launch work on the renovation by January, 1993--as was originally promised--but acknowledged it would take "a minor miracle" to do so.

An influential Los Angeles developer has been named project manager of a proposal to convert the historic Alex Theatre into a performing arts center. The city task force charged with determining the future of the Alex has hired Wayne Ratkovich, president of the Ratkovich Co., to develop a business plan and estimated cost of renovating the 1925 movie house at 216 N. Brand Blvd.