Biomedical Park Given New Life in Compromise Plan

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Biomedical Park Given New Life in Compromise Plan

By LAURENCE DARMIENTO

Staff Reporter

USC has reached a broad agreement with Los Angeles County that will allow its stalled plan for a biomedical research park next to County-USC Medical Center to move forward.

At the same time, the park, seen by some as a project that would largely benefit USC, has picked up key support from UCLA’s chancellor and Caltech’s president, who say it will be a boost for the region’s biotech industry.

The agreement, hammered out over the past few months with County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen, involves compromise on both sides, but especially on the part of USC.

Because of its scope, the project is considered key in helping L.A. shore up its lagging biotech industry, which while home to more than 400 companies remains small given the county’s size.

Last year, USC officials, led by medical school trustee and billionaire Eli Broad, were adamant that the project could only work if 110 acres at the site were assembled together to carve a suburban-style park out of the Boyle Heights neighborhood. But the county objected because that would require moving Central Juvenile Hall at a cost of $200 million.

Under the compromise, USC has agreed to build the park in three phases, similar to what a county consultant recommended last year. The question of what happens to juvenile hall will be left undecided until the last phase.

“I am pleased to see at this point that USC is willing to take a phased approach to this project,” Janssen said. “It’s what the county had been proposing all along, and what we think would work in the long term.”

The university began promoting the park two years ago after receiving a $110 million contribution from the W.M. Keck Foundation to its medical school. In order to become a top school, the trustees decided it needed to do more research, which would require more space.

The first 30-acre phase calls for a mixed-use development that would provide the university with additional research space, a benefit that some county officials privately grumbled about.

Regional benefit claimed

But separate studies completed last year by consultants for the county and USC also agreed that the park would boost L.A.’s biotech industry. Last week, that argument was bolstered when Albert Carnesale, UCLA’s chancellor, and David Baltimore, Caltech’s president, signed on to a letter from USC President Steven Sample and Broad to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The letter stated that the region was losing entrepreneurs trained at L.A.’s elite schools to other areas of the country and that “this park might actually let Los Angeles County move out in front of the competition.”

Baltimore could not be reached for comment, but his support is noteworthy because some had seen a plan to create a biotech cluster in Pasadena as a competing proposal. Caltech is in Pasadena. The letter sent to the supervisors calls the USC park a “compliment, not a competitor” to the Pasadena effort.

Broad, who sits on Caltech’s board and sought Carnesale’s and Baltimore’s support, said the letter is intended to not only show the park is a regional benefit but to keep supervisors’ “eyes on the ball.”

The supervisors will need to ratify any agreement to develop the park, and many details remain to be worked out before a final pact is reached. Most of that work is being done by Molina’s office since the project is in her district.

Molina could not be reached for comment last week, but released a statement. “I am pleased that we have reached consensus with USC on the development of a biomedical park around the County-USC Medical Center. It is our vision to bring these jobs to the area and make them available to the residents of the greater Eastside community,” the statement read.

The compromise calls for the first phase of the park to be built on 30 acres of land off Valley Boulevard near USC University Hospital. The university owns about 12 acres and would have to either buy or lease the rest from the county before the park could get off the ground.

Phase two would be constructed on 30 acres of vacant and other land in front of County-USC Medical Center, and would not be available until a replacement hospital is completed in 2006.

Phase three could be located at the current site of the juvenile hall, thereby connecting the first two phases, if the state provides funds to move the facility. That represents a compromise by Molina who had stated her opposition to move the jail even with outside funding.

Alternate plan available

Instead of moving the juvenile facility, the last phase could involve establishing a string of biotech businesses eastward on Valley Boulevard. Ultimately that would connect the park to nearby Cal State Los Angeles, and is the preferred option of Molina.

However, that alternative has its own obstacles. Some of the land is in private hands and some is in the city of Los Angeles, requiring a cooperative effort. It also includes several existing businesses, probably requiring the establishment of a redevelopment, enterprise or empowerment zone to move it along, said Miguel Santana, Molina’s assistant chief deputy.

Broad said the two sides are working to boil the compromise plan down into a written agreement. At the same time, representatives of the university, county and the state’s Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency are working out the scope of a $200,000 study of the project.

The study, which was funded by legislation authored by state Sen. Richard Polanco, D- Los Angeles, who represents the area, will look more closely at what steps are needed to develop the park. Officials hope the study can be finished by the end of the summer, Santana said.

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