Some of the most noticeable changes along the mid-Wilshire area have little to do with publicly supported redevelopment work.
While the primary funding source for the Wilshire Center/Koreatown Recovery Redevelopment Project has not materialized and its linchpin site is mired in litigation, the private sector has, to some extent, stepped in.
No financial assistance was received from the Community Redevelopment Agency, although the CRA did expedite approvals. Among the projects are:
? MacLeod Partnership’s development of the Sheraton Town House, a former hotel on Wilshire Boulevard adjacent to Lafayette Park. After being shut down following the 1992 riots, the building was recently reopened as an apartment building.
? The former I. Magnin department store on Wilshire Boulevard at New Hampshire Avenue has been refurbished and converted into a retail mall by a private developer.
? The landmark Bullock’s Wilshire building was bought by Southwestern University School of Law, which used private funds to transform the former department store into a law library.
? By far the largest project under construction is the Aroma Sporex on Wilshire Boulevard at Serrano Avenue. The $24-million, 120,000-square-foot health club and restaurant complex is being built by a joint venture of Korea-based Hanil Development Co. and local investor Edward Ahn, with the CRA acting as facilitator.
Another force acting to improve the area is a business improvement district, formed in 1995. Under the BID, owners of businesses and apartment buildings along Wilshire between Wilton Place and Hoover Street have agreed to tax themselves, with the proceeds used for neighborhood improvements.
“There has been a marked improvement in the area,” said Gary Russell, executive director of the BID, formally known as Wilshire Center Business Improvement Corp. “People have a much more positive attitude about the community, and they are speaking highly of it as a place do business in, and as a place to live.”
From a redevelopment perspective, however, the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area remains very much a work in progress.
The project area’s most prominent site, the 23-acre Ambassador Hotel property, remains tied up in the courts. The litigation is between the Los Angeles Unified School District and a development partnership that once included New York developer Donald Trump.
The LAUSD paid the partnership nearly $50 million for the site in 1990, and planned to build a high school there. But it dropped that plan and, after trying unsuccessfully to recover its money, took the development partnership to court.
The partnership has said it plans to develop a $250 million retail/entertainment project on the site, to be called Wilshire Center Marketplace.
Steve Lawler, project manager of the marketplace, declined to comment, other than to confirm that the litigation remains unresolved and the partnership is negotiating with potential partners to participate in developing the project.
Like all redevelopment projects, the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area depends on property values increasing, with the resultant tax increment used to facilitate revitalization. But the assessed value of Wilshire Center/Koreatown properties has fallen from $2.5 billion in 1995-96 to $1.9 billion in 1997-98, according to the CRA. That decrease is primarily due to successful property tax appeals.
“We are in a deficit currently,” said Ken Moye, senior planner for the Wilshire Center/Koreatown project.
Rather than sit idle, CRA officials and community activists have secured alternate sources of funding to get started.
“We use state, federal, and other community funds to support our programs,” Moye said. “For instance, we secured a federal block grant for the Western Avenue fa & #231;ade renovation program. We will offer a $25,000 grant per store owner to renovate the fa & #231;ade of their business. We went out of our way to get that money.”
While public programs have been relatively modest, such as a $4.3 million streetscape program under which some 2,000 trees were planted and various other improvements were made along Wilshire Boulevard, private developers have stepped forward.
Project Area: Wilshire Center/Koreatown
Year Established: 1995
Acres: 1,207
Spending Cap: $TK
Spent to Date: $0
Accomplishments: Several private-sector projects, plus a streetscape and facade renovation program funded by various public- and private-sector sources.
