When the extension of the Gold Line begins delivering rail riders to the new Civic Center station in East Los Angeles this weekend, they’ll get an immediate view of the promises and the challenges of the area’s business future.
The immaculate Metro stop practically gleams – fresh paint shines on the signs and benches. A renovated library is nearby along with a new child care center, where pedestrians stroll about. There are two retail complexes within walking distance, bustling with retail tenants new to East Los Angeles, such as Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Juan Pollo and Tutti Frutti yogurt.
But less than a block away on Third Street, a dilapidated Red Cross building is gated up while its developer tries to find financing to build low-income housing there.
Indeed, a jaunt along the Gold Line’s tracks in East Los Angeles shows the route dotted with closed gas stations, abandoned shacks on weed-infested lots and vacant storefronts – some businesses were forced to close because construction had blocked access to their shops.
The $900 million Gold Line extension into East Los Angeles, which will open Nov. 15, has long been considered a potential catalyst for more retail development and housing along its 6-mile route. In fact, the Gold Line has spawned a handful of such projects.
But, as with much construction nationwide, the economic downturn has derailed the area’s efforts to fully capitalize on the Gold Line’s potential. For example, all six of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s planned transit-oriented developments along the light-rail extension haven’t even broken ground as developers struggle to get financing.
“Although we have developers lined up ready to start, the financing has been hard to come by,” said Greg S. Angelo, director of real property management and development for the MTA. “Some developers are re-evaluating their strategy and project details to see what’s more realistically feasible moving forward.”
With 13,000 people expected to use the new Gold Line extension daily, optimistic developers and government planners said the line could bring visitors to East Los Angeles from connections through Union Station, as well as shuttling thousands of residents from station to station.
About 150,000 people are packed into 7.5-square-mile East Los Angeles and they often use public transportation, so developers are expected to look at the area for retail and residential opportunities, first focusing on areas near the eight new Metro stations, where streetscapes have already received makeovers directly related to the Gold Line extension.
But for now, businesses already near the new light-rail extension are eager to exhale after surviving years of construction that they say dinged business in addition to the downturn.
“It can’t come soon enough,” said Sung Lee, owner of JC Video, a movie rental store in a shopping center at the end of the Gold Line’s extension near Atlantic and Pomona boulevards.
His store has seen a 75 percent drop in business as a result of construction and the overall downturn. “And at this point, it can’t hurt anymore than what we’ve faced in the last year,” Lee said.
Still in the works
The line, officially named the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, starts at Union Station and ends in the heart of the unincorporated area at Atlantic and Pomona. Construction on the extension began in 2004 and was the largest construction project in Los Angeles County at that time.
The extension is expected to cast a new light on the world of East Los Angeles.
“I think the Gold Line has brought some positive attention to the East L.A. area that has gotten a bad rap historically as a place full of crime and poverty,” said Frank Villalobos, president of Barrio Planners Inc., an East L.A.- based architecture firm that helped design the extension. “It’s been challenging for developers to understand that the community will welcome them, but we don’t want to lose the neighborhood’s cultural essence in the process.”
At least a dozen projects, some affordable housing and some mixed-use, are in the planning stages in East Los Angeles. Most of them are within a mile or two of the Gold Line. A big challenge has been financing.
MTA officials were hoping to see construction launched by now on six projects – with a total of up to 275 affordable housing units – near four of the Gold Line stations.
For example, the largest two MTA-backed projects are slated for the Mariachi Plaza stop at First Street and Boyle Avenue. Development company McCormack Baron Salazar has proposed a mixed-use building on 3.5 acres, consisting of 100 affordable housing units and 6,000 square feet of retail space.
JSM Construction had hoped to develop 160,000 square feet of retail and office space on another 3.5-acre lot.
“There’s just a lack of funding, plain and simple,” said Angelo of the MTA. “But the demand is there, for the housing especially.”
They aren’t the only ones clamoring for financing in the East L.A. community.
The non-profit East Los Angeles Community Corp. is trying to get $21 million for the renovation of the Boyle Hotel, also at Mariachi Plaza. That project would turn the hotel into 51 affordable rental apartments. So far, the organization has secured 25 percent of the funding but hopes to acquire enough next year to complete the project by early 2012.
Near the Civic Center stop at Third Street and Mednik Avenue, developer National Core Community Renaissance plans a $17 million mixed-use project with ground-floor retail space and 60 work force housing units at the site of a former Red Cross office building. No start date has been set; National Core is still working on financing.
The 1927 Golden Gate Theatre building, one of the rare structures in East Los Angeles that’s on the National Register of Historic Places, is slated for redevelopment. The theater, at 909 S. Atlantic Ave., has been owned five years by the Charles Co., which plans to bring a national drug store chain to the site.
The developer hasn’t announced final plans, but Villalobos of Barrio Planners said that some community groups, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, are vehemently opposed to altering the building and would rather see a cultural arts center or movie house.
End of tunnel
While some projects are stalled, the area has seen a handful of developments successfully constructed and filled with tenants in the last few years.
Mukai Maravilla LLC built Civic Center Plaza, which opened near the Civic Center stop on East Third and Mednik in 2003, and includes a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a Time Warner Cable customer service store and Juan Pollo. The shopping center’s 17 spaces are all now fully leased.
And at the other end of community, the Whittier Clela Shopping Center opened in 2005, boasting tenants including Little Caesar’s and Wing Stop. The 14,000-square-foot development is near 100 percent occupancy.
David Ahdoot, owner of downtown-based Dokhy LLC, is putting the finishing touches on his half-acre shopping complex, Plaza Monte Vista. Ahdoot’s center is fully leased with five tenants, including a Subway sandwich shop; a Denny’s is moving in early next year – it will be one of the only sit-down chain restaurants in the area.
“People want more food choices,” said Ahdoot, who credits his wife, Terry, an East L.A. native, for showing him the area’s potential. He has seven other retail complexes in East Los Angeles.
Ahdoot’s shopping plaza is a half-mile from the nearest Gold Line station, so he doesn’t know if people will walk to the complex. But he thinks the line will provide indirect benefits because car traffic avoiding the light rail on Third Street will likely pass his retail center on Cesar Chavez Avenue.
Mercadito Mariachi Restaurant, on the third floor of El Mercado market, is near the Indiana Station on the extension. Formerly called La Perla, it’s known for its mariachi duels. Manager Victor Martinez sees the light rail as a perfect opportunity to attract business, which recently has been down about 25 percent.
In preparing for the Gold Line opening, the restaurant took a new name, redesigned its Web site, and renovated parts of the interior. The owner, Pedro Rosado, hopes to build elevators and escalators to funnel foot traffic upstairs from off the Gold Line’s nearby stop.
“We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally,” said Martinez. (The train emerges from the tunnel directly in front of his restaurant.) “I don’t think East Los Angeles will ever be the same again. So we have to embrace the change.”
But the change may not be apparent immediately.
“It’s going to take some time for us to see more growth as the Metro lines aren’t the main source of transit for people used to their cars or other ways of getting around,” said Jane Blumenfeld, acting deputy director for L.A.’s Department of City Planning.
“Just look at Hollywood and how just now, 20 years after the Red Line subway opened, we are seeing more businesses and the thousands of apartments springing up,” she said.
