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Looking for Seventh Heaven
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| A series of historic structures line Seventh Street. Area stakeholders think that with new projects and retail, the corridor can return to prominence. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
Housing Is Latest Buzzword in Effort to Turn an Embattled Street Around
by Chris Coates
Every weekday morning, one by one, the mishmash of shops, offices and restaurants along Seventh Street spring to life. In the area between the Fashion and Jewelry districts, merchants carefully stock cardboard tables with toothbrushes, cans of soda and magazines. On the western side of the thoroughfare, suit-clad workers saunter past jewelry stores and abandoned storefronts to the Los Angeles Athletic Club for a morning workout. Others head to Macy's Plaza to shop.
The scene epitomizes a dilemma that Seventh Street stakeholders have long struggled with: The area draws people, but several empty structures have hampered foot traffic. Now, after numerous false starts and development plans that sputtered, the corridor is once again the focus of attention and hopes. This time, the hook that could save the street is a familiar one: housing.
"I think it's happening," said Don Spivack, deputy administrator of the Community Redevelopment Agency and a longtime observer of the area. "It's particularly happening as... more people are moving down here. That's giving you a built-in consumer base."
While housing has yet to open on the corridor, proponents point to projects underway in three key structures on what is often called the Brooks Brothers block, the plot bounded by Grand Avenue and Seventh, Eighth and Olive streets. Developers are moving forward on efforts to create a total of 132 housing units here. By the end of the year, hundreds of new residents from Seventh Street itself (and thousands more from other nearby projects) could be patronizing area restaurants and shops.
Fashion District property owner George Peykar purchased the Coulter and Mandell buildings at 500 and 518 W. Seventh St. in early 2003. The listing price was $8 million. Plans call for linking the two structures, a former office building and dry goods store, for conversion into 55 live-work lofts with possibly a ground floor restaurant and convenience store. Combined, the buildings comprise 137,000 square feet. Eddie Peykar, George's brother and a partner on the project, said demand for the rental units is strong. He expects move-ins to start in April.
The other key property on the block, the Brockman Building at 530 W. Seventh St. (also commonly called the Brooks Brothers Building), was purchased in December 2003 for $7.5 million by Urban Pacific Builders, Salter Company and West Millennium Homes. A $21 million conversion is turning the 12-story former office building into 77 for-purchase lofts. The edifice is slated for a fall 2005 opening, according to Dana Yogel, the development's senior project manager.
Mark Tarczynski, a vice president at real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis, handled the sales of the Coulter, Mandell and Brockman buildings. He noted that prospective owners were attracted by the properties' central location and historic elements. "They're gorgeous buildings," he observed.
Another redevelopment effort is happening three blocks to the east. In 2002, Barry Shy purchased the 14-story Bartlett Building at 215 W. Seventh St. Shy, who also redeveloped the Higgins Building on Second Street (a property where some tenants have clashed with the owners over a proposed condominium conversion), said he was attracted to the Beaux Arts-style Bartlett because of its central location. "I liked the district," he said. "It's an older building with a historic element.
Shy spent about $15 million to turn the former home of Union Oil into condominiums. All 140 have been leased, he said, and tenants will start moving in early next month.
A key factor is that the developments are not happening in a vacuum, and could ultimately be part of a lively portion of Seventh Street stretching from the 7+Fig mall to the Fashion District. In May 2001, a Rite Aid pharmacy opened in the J.W. Robinson's Department store at 600 W. Seventh St. The top floors of the converted building house a telecommunications company, which keeps the property up to date, but brings few people to the area.
Further east, Santa Monica developer Mark Weinstein is spending $130 million to turn nine former garment factories at Seventh and Los Angeles streets into Santee Court, a mixed-use development with 600 units. A year ago, Two-One-Three, the firm behind the Golden Gopher bar, purchased the Brock Jewelers building, the former home of Clifton's Silver Spoon restaurant, at W. 515 Seventh St. The firm now houses its offices in the building, and other companies have moved there as well.
"Clearly, I think Seventh Street is on an upswing," said Los Angeles Conservancy Director of Preservation Issues Ken Bernstein, whose organization fended off several efforts to destroy some of the properties now set aside for residential. He said the renewal is particularly impressive given Seventh Street's bumpy history. "We are achieving the long-promised 24-hour Downtown," Bernstein said.
Going Full Circle
The current happenings mark the potential of a full-circle turn for Seventh Street. In the 1940s, businesses flocked to the corridor as an outgrowth of the well-established commercial hub on Broadway. Seventh Street was home to such stores as C&R Clothiers, Robinson's, Lane Bryant, May Co., Bullocks, Silverwood's, Barker Brothers and Brooks Brothers. The area thrived until the end of World War II, when suburban expansion became particularly heavy.
"With that, a lot of retailers felt it didn't make sense to maintain in-city locations," Spivack said.
The growth of Bunker Hill in the 1970s also played a role. As former Victorian residences gave way to gleaming new glass and metal skyscrapers, the attention, and the investment money, in Downtown shifted north from Seventh Street. In the 1980s, several national department stores announced they were closing Seventh Street locations.
The retail industry suffered two more major blows in the early 1990s. The recession hammered Downtown as a whole, particularly the office leasing market, while Seventh Street was hit by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's construction on the Red Line. The work beneath Seventh Street closed portions of the corridor for months. Many businesses closed shop. Some never returned.
There have been sporadic efforts since then to re-ignite the street, with particular interest paid to the Brooks Brothers block. Perhaps the most prominent attempt was a move in 1990 by Japan-based All Nippon Airways (ANA) to demolish the entire block and construct a 2.5 million-square-foot office building and 550-room hotel on the site. The Conservancy protested the move; that and a faltering office market helped torpedo the plans. In 2001, the new owner of the Brooks Brothers Building, Denver-based Thermo Grand Avenue, formed a partnership with Sage Hospitality, a hotel management company also based in Denver, with plans to build a $30 million hotel. Like its predecessor, financing fell through and the deal eventually fizzled.
In the early 1990s, ANA and other property owners partnered to make improvements to the physical conditions of Seventh Street, particularly by installing street lights. Karen Hathaway, CEO of LAACO, which owns and runs the Los Angeles Athletic Club at 431 W. Seventh St., said the movement was mired in city and internal bureaucracy.
"It was eventually accomplished despite the bureaucracy," Hathaway said, with the installation of about a dozen historic lights between Grand Avenue and Figueroa Street. With the construction of the Red Line, though, crews damaged some of the lights and many remain dark.
"On Seventh Street, we don't [collectively] have enough interest or focus to put together a plan," said Hathaway, comparing the street's outlook to the billion-dollar plan to improve Grand Avenue. "It continues to need active street level retail. As more projects come online, I think we're going to see that."
The current hopes stem from the 1999 passage of the adaptive reuse ordinance, a process that streamlined the redevelopment of former office buildings and encouraged developers to snap up properties. While observers caution that the street has yet to take on a new apartment and condo-powered life, the anticipated growth has also raised questions. Some worry whether Seventh Street can support a thriving residential life. Last March, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the USC Neighborhood Participation Project held a focus group to discuss the redevelopment. Community members had mixed feelings.
"Today [Seventh Street] traverses quite a bit of diverse territory... and there are differing ideas about where that should go," said Mark Elliot, a doctorate student with the USC Neighborhood Participation Project who helped organize the study set for release later this year. He contrasted the low-income population on the eastern edges of Seventh Street with the more expensive new housing coming online.
The CRA's Spivack said the secret to Seventh Street's successes may lie in creating "something that better links the different retail districts along the street [making visitors] more aware of the continuum from the upper-scale west end to the more value-scale east end."
Tarczynski takes the point further.
"It will link the Central Business District and the Historic Core," he said. "I'm excited about the redevelopment that's going on."
Contact Chris Coates at chris@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 1/24/05
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
The scene epitomizes a dilemma that Seventh Street stakeholders have long struggled with: The area draws people, but several empty structures have hampered foot traffic. Now, after numerous false starts and development plans that sputtered, the corridor is once again the focus of attention and hopes. This time, the hook that could save the street is a familiar one: housing.
"I think it's happening," said Don Spivack, deputy administrator of the Community Redevelopment Agency and a longtime observer of the area. "It's particularly happening as... more people are moving down here. That's giving you a built-in consumer base."
While housing has yet to open on the corridor, proponents point to projects underway in three key structures on what is often called the Brooks Brothers block, the plot bounded by Grand Avenue and Seventh, Eighth and Olive streets. Developers are moving forward on efforts to create a total of 132 housing units here. By the end of the year, hundreds of new residents from Seventh Street itself (and thousands more from other nearby projects) could be patronizing area restaurants and shops.
Fashion District property owner George Peykar purchased the Coulter and Mandell buildings at 500 and 518 W. Seventh St. in early 2003. The listing price was $8 million. Plans call for linking the two structures, a former office building and dry goods store, for conversion into 55 live-work lofts with possibly a ground floor restaurant and convenience store. Combined, the buildings comprise 137,000 square feet. Eddie Peykar, George's brother and a partner on the project, said demand for the rental units is strong. He expects move-ins to start in April.
The other key property on the block, the Brockman Building at 530 W. Seventh St. (also commonly called the Brooks Brothers Building), was purchased in December 2003 for $7.5 million by Urban Pacific Builders, Salter Company and West Millennium Homes. A $21 million conversion is turning the 12-story former office building into 77 for-purchase lofts. The edifice is slated for a fall 2005 opening, according to Dana Yogel, the development's senior project manager.
Mark Tarczynski, a vice president at real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis, handled the sales of the Coulter, Mandell and Brockman buildings. He noted that prospective owners were attracted by the properties' central location and historic elements. "They're gorgeous buildings," he observed.
Another redevelopment effort is happening three blocks to the east. In 2002, Barry Shy purchased the 14-story Bartlett Building at 215 W. Seventh St. Shy, who also redeveloped the Higgins Building on Second Street (a property where some tenants have clashed with the owners over a proposed condominium conversion), said he was attracted to the Beaux Arts-style Bartlett because of its central location. "I liked the district," he said. "It's an older building with a historic element.
Shy spent about $15 million to turn the former home of Union Oil into condominiums. All 140 have been leased, he said, and tenants will start moving in early next month.
A key factor is that the developments are not happening in a vacuum, and could ultimately be part of a lively portion of Seventh Street stretching from the 7+Fig mall to the Fashion District. In May 2001, a Rite Aid pharmacy opened in the J.W. Robinson's Department store at 600 W. Seventh St. The top floors of the converted building house a telecommunications company, which keeps the property up to date, but brings few people to the area.
Further east, Santa Monica developer Mark Weinstein is spending $130 million to turn nine former garment factories at Seventh and Los Angeles streets into Santee Court, a mixed-use development with 600 units. A year ago, Two-One-Three, the firm behind the Golden Gopher bar, purchased the Brock Jewelers building, the former home of Clifton's Silver Spoon restaurant, at W. 515 Seventh St. The firm now houses its offices in the building, and other companies have moved there as well.
"Clearly, I think Seventh Street is on an upswing," said Los Angeles Conservancy Director of Preservation Issues Ken Bernstein, whose organization fended off several efforts to destroy some of the properties now set aside for residential. He said the renewal is particularly impressive given Seventh Street's bumpy history. "We are achieving the long-promised 24-hour Downtown," Bernstein said.
The current happenings mark the potential of a full-circle turn for Seventh Street. In the 1940s, businesses flocked to the corridor as an outgrowth of the well-established commercial hub on Broadway. Seventh Street was home to such stores as C&R Clothiers, Robinson's, Lane Bryant, May Co., Bullocks, Silverwood's, Barker Brothers and Brooks Brothers. The area thrived until the end of World War II, when suburban expansion became particularly heavy.
"With that, a lot of retailers felt it didn't make sense to maintain in-city locations," Spivack said.
The growth of Bunker Hill in the 1970s also played a role. As former Victorian residences gave way to gleaming new glass and metal skyscrapers, the attention, and the investment money, in Downtown shifted north from Seventh Street. In the 1980s, several national department stores announced they were closing Seventh Street locations.
The retail industry suffered two more major blows in the early 1990s. The recession hammered Downtown as a whole, particularly the office leasing market, while Seventh Street was hit by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's construction on the Red Line. The work beneath Seventh Street closed portions of the corridor for months. Many businesses closed shop. Some never returned.
There have been sporadic efforts since then to re-ignite the street, with particular interest paid to the Brooks Brothers block. Perhaps the most prominent attempt was a move in 1990 by Japan-based All Nippon Airways (ANA) to demolish the entire block and construct a 2.5 million-square-foot office building and 550-room hotel on the site. The Conservancy protested the move; that and a faltering office market helped torpedo the plans. In 2001, the new owner of the Brooks Brothers Building, Denver-based Thermo Grand Avenue, formed a partnership with Sage Hospitality, a hotel management company also based in Denver, with plans to build a $30 million hotel. Like its predecessor, financing fell through and the deal eventually fizzled.
In the early 1990s, ANA and other property owners partnered to make improvements to the physical conditions of Seventh Street, particularly by installing street lights. Karen Hathaway, CEO of LAACO, which owns and runs the Los Angeles Athletic Club at 431 W. Seventh St., said the movement was mired in city and internal bureaucracy.
"It was eventually accomplished despite the bureaucracy," Hathaway said, with the installation of about a dozen historic lights between Grand Avenue and Figueroa Street. With the construction of the Red Line, though, crews damaged some of the lights and many remain dark.
"On Seventh Street, we don't [collectively] have enough interest or focus to put together a plan," said Hathaway, comparing the street's outlook to the billion-dollar plan to improve Grand Avenue. "It continues to need active street level retail. As more projects come online, I think we're going to see that."
The current hopes stem from the 1999 passage of the adaptive reuse ordinance, a process that streamlined the redevelopment of former office buildings and encouraged developers to snap up properties. While observers caution that the street has yet to take on a new apartment and condo-powered life, the anticipated growth has also raised questions. Some worry whether Seventh Street can support a thriving residential life. Last March, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the USC Neighborhood Participation Project held a focus group to discuss the redevelopment. Community members had mixed feelings.
"Today [Seventh Street] traverses quite a bit of diverse territory... and there are differing ideas about where that should go," said Mark Elliot, a doctorate student with the USC Neighborhood Participation Project who helped organize the study set for release later this year. He contrasted the low-income population on the eastern edges of Seventh Street with the more expensive new housing coming online.
The CRA's Spivack said the secret to Seventh Street's successes may lie in creating "something that better links the different retail districts along the street [making visitors] more aware of the continuum from the upper-scale west end to the more value-scale east end."
Tarczynski takes the point further.
"It will link the Central Business District and the Historic Core," he said. "I'm excited about the redevelopment that's going on."
Contact Chris Coates at chris@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 1/24/05
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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