Spotlight on PARAMOUNT: Tired Industrial Zone Reborn

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Spotlight on PARAMOUNT: Tired Industrial Zone Reborn

By DANNY KING

Staff Reporter





A big-box store might be a threat to some communities, but to the southwest section of Paramount, it’s the best thing that’s happened in years.

The opening of a Home Depot earlier this month was the culmination of a three-year renaissance on a neglected half-mile stretch of Alondra Boulevard that began when the home improvement chain started discussions to buy property in the area.

“That will really help our business,” said El Pollo Loco owner Cliff Shigaki, who opened his restaurant when he heard Home Depot was moving in. A Jack in the Box also has opened up nearby.

Also new to the area is the completion of nine homes by Paramount-based Hood Development Corp., just south of Home Depot at Atlantic Place and Rancho Rio. Paramount City Manager Patrick West said each of the homes sold for over $250,000, a first for a Paramount housing development. The median price of a single-family home in the city last year was $162,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Beautification effort

Other changes include $1.5 million in beautification work that features a grass median down the center of Alondra Boulevard. There’s also artwork: a sculpture on Alondra Boulevard and a mural of a school of dolphins on the eastern bank of the L.A. River.

“They’ve done an enormous amount of public improvements to support our development,” said Home Depot spokesman Chuck Sifuentes. And for good reason: the arrival of Home Depot is expected to provide a $500,000 annual boost to city tax coffers and further retail development.

Once a thriving working-class community when it was incorporated in 1957, Paramount became one of many southeast cities (Downey, Bellflower and South Gate, among others) that formed L.A.’s industrial center in the 1960s.

“It became a rust belt,” West said of the ensuing years after manufacturing waned in the area. “We had a beautiful downtown, but it deteriorated beyond belief.”

The depth of the downturn occurred in 1982 when a Rand Corp. report named Paramount one of the nation’s worst suburbs (placing 14th out of 408).

The city as a whole has gradually improved its lot, due to a campaign to improve the image of a community ravaged by industrial obsolescence and gang violence. “They’ve done a lot to clean it up,” added Bert Brown, longtime chairman of Grace Church of Paramount on Alondra.

Retail sales rise

Paramount retail sales rose 49 percent between 1990 and 1999, double the county’s rate of improvement, according to the California State Board of Equalization. Meanwhile, violent crimes (including homicide, rape, robbery and assault) fell by 45 percent between 1994 and 2001.

“There was a huge gang problem for us in this area,” said West. “There’s still gang crime in the area, but we’ve really attacked that.”

Even so, the revival did not apply to the southwest part of the city until Home Depot showed interest three years ago in the 12-acre parcel near the Long Beach (710) Freeway it purchased in February 2001 for $5 million.

The Jack in the Box and El Pollo Loco sites had been vacant lots, while a trailer park predated Hood Development’s homes. A new Chevron station at Alondra and Hunsacker Avenue replaced a burnt-out independent station that had ceased operations years ago.

“(Home Depot) improved the quality of retail along Alondra Boulevard,” said Pacific Retail Partners President Mike Jensen, who represented both Home Depot and Jack in the Box in their purchase and long-term lease deals.

Shigaki added that his Paramount store, which has experienced two incidents of graffiti but no other criminal acts since its opening, has exceeded sales levels at his two other El Pollo Loco stores in Glendale and Colton.

“We spent a lot of money investing into that area because we felt that the return was going to be there,” said Shigaki, who had to comply with city specifications that new businesses use Mediterranean architecture. It cost him $1 million to open his store.

“If you give them something beautiful that they can be proud of, your problems are far less than if you throw a box in there,” Shigaki said.

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