Should Los Angeles County ditch the Civic Center?
Rebecca Ellis, David Zahniser
Los Angeles Times
August 10, 2024
The county’s considering trading its stock of buildings vulnerable in an earthquake for something a little sleeker. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Downtown L.A.’s Civic Center has its share of icons. At one end of Gloria Molina Grand Park sits Los Angeles City Hall, an Art Deco gem featured in more than a dozen municipal-minded films, including “L.A. Confidential” and “Chinatown.” At the other end is Grand Avenue, home to the Music Center and Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, whose gleaming curves make it a constant tourist draw.
Then there’s the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, the heart of county government and something of an unloved sibling to the masterworks nearby. It’s old, visually unremarkable and, most consequentially, could come crashing down during the next big earthquake. Faced with a daunting retrofitting project, the county is now considering trading up for something a little snazzier, a move some real estate observers say could reshape downtown. “It would have a ripple effect in all directions,” said Nick Griffin, executive director of the Downtown Center Business Improvement District. It’s “the 800-pound gorilla in that scenario.”
County officials met for over an hour behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss a deal to purchase the Gas Company Tower, a 52-story downtown skyscraper considered the peak of L.A. office buildings when it was built in 1991. The county is also looking to acquire space at the World Trade Center Los Angeles, potentially for employee parking. The building is at 350 S. Figueroa St., about a 10-minute walk from the tower, which is at 555 W. 5th St.
John Cooke, who heads the county’s asset management division, and Thomas Faughnan, a senior lawyer for the county, are negotiating with Gregg Williams, a receiver for both properties Tuesday, per the agenda. The county says they’re still negotiating the deal, which will eventually need to get approval from the Board of Supervisors. For the county’s Chief Executive Office, which is spearheading the negotiation, it’s a chance to grab a prime piece of real estate for $215 million (a bargain basement price when compared with its appraised value of about $600 million pre-pandemic) while avoiding a costly retrofitting process. Kit Miyamoto, a commissioner with the California Seismic Safety Commission, said the cost to seismically upgrade the Hall itself could easily consume tens of millions of dollars.
It’s early still, but some in the downtown real estate world are salivating at the idea of a move by county government deeper into the city’s core.
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