RDA Board Listens To Big-City
Visions For Downtown
By Steve Irsay
Staff Writer
Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board Chairman Thomas Fields recently recalled his first impression of downtown Long Beach, saying that a 1977 stroll down Pine Avenue conjured images of “New York by the sea.”
At a Monday meeting of the RDA, Fields was not alone in this big-city vision.
A plan to erect three soaring high-rise towers — the largest topping out at 42 stories — was among nine proposals presented from developers vying for the rights to revitalize up to six public and privately owned sites along Long Beach Boulevard between First and Third streets.
The sites includes the Edison Building — also known as City Hall East — at 100 Long Beach Blvd, the vacant American Hotel Building near Broadway, several parking lots and a number of small businesses.
Some consider the area, which also includes the Metro Blue Line station, an underperforming gateway between the city’s convention and entertainment centers to the south, Pine Avenue to the west and the burgeoning East Village Arts District to the east.
A final development team is scheduled to give a presentation at 8:30 a.m., Monday at City Hall. Then, a selection committee made up of city officials and outside advisors will begin narrowing the field in hopes of naming the finalist or finalists in March 2006, said Amy Bodek, the city’s project development bureau manager.
RDA board member Jane Netherton said the strong showing of interest in the sites was more proof of progress in the downtown revitalization effort.
“Eight years ago, we’d have to beg people to come in and make proposals about downtown,” she told the roughly 75 people in the City Council chambers for the three-hour meeting. “So, we’ve come a long way.”
While some developers literally reached for the sky, others had more homegrown approaches, including one plan to incorporate a Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach museum into a residential loft project.
One of the most sweeping plans came from Pennsylvania-Toll Brothers. The billion-dollar proposal calls for tearing down City Hall East and erecting residential towers rising 42, 38 and 21 stories, resulting in more than 1,200 housing units. There are also plans for a boutique hotel and a 40,000-square-foot Art Exchange.
The plan would drastically alter the downtown skyline and give the city a much-needed “center,” said Doug Otto, a former Long Beach Planning Commissioner brought in to consult on the project.
“This will be the city’s dream realized,” he said. “That is our promise.”
Another high-rise project is Florida-based Lennar’s “The Boulevard,” described as a “master-planned neighborhood” including 170,000-square feet of high-end retail and 1,175 housing units.
Oregon-based Williams & Dame Development proposed building out instead of up, spreading 49,000-square-feet of art space, 14,600-square-feet of retail space and 369 lofts and condos across five 7-story buildings set in pedestrian-friendly green spaces. James Atkins, the company’s senior development project manager, touted the group’s experience building “new, ground-up neighborhoods” in sections of downtown Portland.
“We can replicate this neighborhood-building project in downtown Long Beach,” he said.
In line with the request from the city and RDA, nearly every developer incorporated some form of the proposed Art Exchange — a mixed-use enclave of galleries, live/work spaces and classrooms seen as a potential hub of the East Village Arts District.
“The city has a bright future and we see the Art Exchange as the heart of the East Village area,” said Mark Ferdi of Texas-based Centex Corporation, whose plan would preserve the historic American Hotel building and also build a new community theater.
For downtown Long Beach-based Urban Pacific Builders, the Art Exchange is — and has been — the centerpiece of their downtown plans.
For several years, the company has been partnered with the original non-profit Art Exchange developers, downtown Realtor Phil Appleby and artist Steve Elicker, as well as the local property owners.
The team’s latest proposal includes a 22,000-square-foot Art Exchange for the Industrial Arts, as well as the conversion of City Hall East to lofts and retail, and plans to turn the Bank of America Building at 150 Long Beach Blvd. into a satellite campus for a “well-known art college” from Los Angeles — all while keeping both new construction and building heights to relative lows, said Mark Tolley, managing partner of Urban Pacific.
“We’ve seen some nice proposals today, but we don’t necessarily feel high-rise would be appropriate for this site,” he said.
RDA board member and local architect Rick Meghiddo also questioned the use of high-rise construction. Overall, he gave the presentations mixed reviews.
“I have seen, with few exceptions, little innovation,” he said. “But at least some teams decided to be less ‘careful’ and present ideas to be discussed.”
One such idea may have been from Grand Prix Place LLC, a team proposing the conversion of the 10-story City Hall East into a Grand Prix Museum in the basement and lobby levels topped off by seven stories of lofts, or possibly boutique hotel rooms.
Long Beach Grand Prix founder Chris Pook and current Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Jim Michaelian were both on hand to lend support to the project. Michaelian said the museum would give an important local event an “ongoing presence in town.”
“This would be another destination for people to come and participate in the Long Beach lifestyle,” he added.
There are a number of existing businesses among the redevelopment sites, including the family-owned Acres of Books. Co-owner Phil Smith said about 15 years ago another redevelopment proposal threatened the existence of the business he inherited from his grandfather.
“We thought we were safe and here we are again with our store and our livelihood in distress,” he said during a break in the presentations. “It’s troubling.”
Smith said only one developer, Lennar, has approached him about making Acres of Books part of a new development. In its presentation, Toll Brothers expressed an interest in incorporating the store. Other developers have not made their intentions clear, Smith said.
He added that he supported the redevelopment efforts and felt that an influx of artists and other residents to the area would make a bookstore “a good fit.” He just hopes it will be his store, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary.
“We’ve been in Long Beach a very long time,” he told the RDA board, “and we look forward to staying a little longer.”
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