Hollywood Galaxy

Hollywood

When it opened to great fanfare in 1991, the $48 million Hollywood Galaxy retail and entertainment center was supposed to provide the spark that would jump-start the area’s economy.

But the 150,000-square-foot development on Hollywood Boulevard near La Brea Avenue never took off. After just four years, developer Korwasser & Friedman declared the project in bankruptcy and prime lender Citicorp foreclosed on the property.

Today, it only has two tenants: a six-screen General Cinema Corp. multiplex and the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, neither of which attract big crowds.

The Galaxy was in part a victim of poor timing. After years of planning, it opened at the start of L.A.’s longest and most painful recession in 60 years. And it opened in an area that had been going downhill for some time, a slide that only accelerated with the recession.

But the real problem was more basic. Land-use attorney Jerry Neuman said the Galaxy was never designed to mesh with the surrounding neighborhood. It lacked adequate signage, part of it was built underground, and the fa & #231;ade was seen as unattractive.

“People didn’t take to it because it seemed so set apart from the rest of the neighborhood,” said Neuman, who is with the firm Allen, Matkins, Leck, Gamble & Mallory.

Last November, Westwood-based CIM Group bought the Galaxy for $21 million, with the hope of turning it around. A complete redesign is slated for the next 12 months.

Howard Fine