Westwood Village has fallen on tough times. Vacant storefronts have multiplied and homeless people camp out in front of them. The old movie houses that used to host glamorous premieres have closed or are struggling. Trash-strewn sidewalks are cracked.

Some business interests, believing a business improvement district could lead a turnaround, tried but failed three times in recent years to create one. But now, thanks to a strategic move, a BID for Westwood Village is on the verge of being formed.

The BID’s revival is generally welcomed by local merchants, who say business has suffered in the decade since the last improvement district shut down amid a financial scandal.

Clinton Schudy, who owns Oakley’s Barber Shop on Gayley Avenue, the oldest continuously operating business in Westwood Village, said his base of customers has aged and many potential customers are going to fresher shopping districts, such as the Grove, Century City, Westside Pavilion or Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.

“The focus right now must be to clean up the area so people will want to come back to the village,” he said.

Schudy said the old BID had installed lights in the trees to beautify the streets at night. The lights went out long ago and have not been replaced.

“It would be great if they could bring something like that back again,” he said. “That made such a difference.”

Other merchants have expressed growing frustration at the length of time it has taken to create a new BID.

“The village has gone down, not up, in regard to cleanliness, safety and the spread of empty storefronts,” said Shannon Montoya, event sales manager at Napa Valley Grille restaurant on Glendon Avenue near Wilshire Boulevard. “We desperately need this BID.”

Long decay

In the glory days of the 1980s, Westwood Village was a regional destination comparable to today’s Third Street Promenade. But a gang shooting in 1988 killed a young woman bystander. That drove the crowds away, and they’ve never fully returned.

In an attempt to bring back the area, the first BID was formed in 1995.

BIDs are neighborhoods with defined boundaries in which the property owners pay a special assessment, which is like a tax but technically not. The money typically is used for security patrols, neighborhood cleanup and the like. BIDs are created by local governments but are not themselves governmental bodies. Los Angeles County has many BIDs, including ones in downtown, Old Town Pasadena and Hollywood.

But in 2001, three years of Westwood Village BID assessments totaling more than $660,000 vanished. Then-City Councilman Jack Weiss opposed the BID’s renewal and the rest of the council followed his lead and voted to shut it down.

The council adopted reforms that led to new safeguards, including a requirement that every BID submit its financial records to the City Clerk’s Office each year and have those records certified by accountants.

Since then, at least three attempts have been made to relaunch the Westwood Village BID, but all failed. That’s because they met with opposition from a few major property owners who balked at the prospect of paying additional assessments.

Insiders told the Business Journal the efforts were opposed mainly by Alan Casden, head of Casden Properties LLC. They claimed he reasoned that he was already providing for his properties many of the same services a BID would perform. Casden did not return phone calls for comment.

But in late 2009, newly elected Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents Westwood, made reviving a BID a top priority.

“I’ve been personally going to Westwood since I was a kid,” Koretz said last week. “Westwood has declined from its heyday that I remember and the city hasn’t been able to provide the services to improve the look and safety of the village. That’s why we need to re-establish the BID.”

Koretz made the strategic move of including office towers on Wilshire Boulevard in the BID. That dilutes any opposition from property owners in the village.

Koretz asked Kambiz Hekmat, whose Indivest Corp. owns two of those Wilshire high-rises – including the Murdock Plaza building housing the Regency Club. which may close this spring – to lead a steering committee to relaunch the district.

“I work in Westwood and I own properties in Westwood,” Hekmat said. “It hurts me to see the village in such a state. It needs revitalization.”

Getting go-ahead

Late last year, Hekmat’s committee submitted petitions from owners representing a majority of the property in Westwood Village and along the neighboring Wilshire corridor calling for the creation of a BID.

The City Council last week gave the go-ahead for an assessment vote this spring. If the property owners reconfirm their commitment in that election, then a BID covering Westwood Village and the high-rise office towers on the adjoining stretch of Wilshire could be formed by July 1.

(In December, Hekmat won city approval for a 29-story mixed-use tower at Wilshire and Gayley that would either contain 250 hotel rooms or 125 condominium units. The tower would be within the Westwood BID.)

If created, the new BID would have the right to operate for three years with an annual budget of roughly $1 million. Its main functions would be to spruce up the trees and sidewalks, collect litter and increase security patrols. Later, the BID’s governing board could launch a marketing effort to help the area compete for shoppers.

Properties would pay an assessment based on the square footage of buildings on the property and the amount of street frontage. The annual assessments would range from about $1,200 for the smallest parcel to $72,500 for the largest, according to documents that BID proponents have filed with the city. Casden’s mixed-use Palazzo project, which covers two parcels and includes a Trader Joe’s, high-end apartments, restaurants and retail, would be assessed at $77,000.

UCLA is joining the BID, too. As a public entity, the university is not required to pay an assessment for the two properties it owns within BID boundaries: the Geffen Theatre and a Wilshire office tower. However, the university volunteered to pay about $40,000 a year and to make its campus police available for patrols of Westwood Village.

Sam Morabito, the university’s administrative vice chancellor, said that having a safe and clean Westwood Village would help the university recruit top-level faculty and reassure anxious parents that their students would be safer in their off-campus ventures.

“The village is our neighbor and we think it’s vital that it be a safe and thriving place,” Morabito said.