Developers Hope to Recapture Old Hollywood Glitter

A surge of interest among developers hoping to recapture the lost splendor of Hollywood has given legendary Tinsel Town new hope for the future in its centennial year.

Who are the modern Hollywood trailblazers and what is their vision?

In the forefront of current revitalization are:

--Melvin Simon’s proposed $150-million mixed-use Hollywood Promenade complex.

--The $30-million Hollywood Galaxy project of K & F Commercial Properties, soon to break ground one block west of Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

--The ongoing refurbishment of the landmark Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel by Century Pacific.

--Tandam Realty Group’s expansion of the adjacent site to the new Screen Actors Guild’s Renaissance Court.

All, either partially completed or scheduled for construction by mid-year, are within five blocks west of Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

--In the vicinity of La Brea Avenue, Stephen J. Cannell Productions now occupies a site that formerly housed a massage parlor, a barber shop and a belly-dancing school. The six-story, 75,000-square-foot building was completed in 1982.

Other indications of Hollywood’s renaissance can be seen in the $2-million project involving restoration of the historic Janes House at 6541 Hollywood Blvd. and an additional 12,000 square feet of retail and office space being developed by Janes House Square Ltd., headed by developer Parviz Ebrahimian. Leasing is under way by Coldwell Banker, and a key tenant is the Hollywood Economic Revitalization Effort.

Additionally there is the proposed $1-million restoration by The Group (headed by David Kelsey) of the Hollywood World Theater, a movie theater built in the early 1920s at 6025 Hollywood Boulevard.

Other investors are seriously examining the potential of the Vine Street corridor, the Gower/Hollywood and Sunset/La Brea intersections and at Western Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

Classic Structure

The latter includes the Motion Picture Assn. building, currently being considered for historic designation. The classic Zigzag Moderne office structure was designed by S. Charles Lee in 1928 and formerly housed filmdom’s omnipotent censor--the Hays Office.

At a recent gathering of the Society of Marketing Professional Services, Diana Webb, senior project manager for the Hollywood Redevelopment Project, reviewed the demographics and potential for development of the town that has given Los Angeles so much genius and eccentricity, beauty and vice since launching its first movie production in 1910 in a barn at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Avenue.

“Hollywood’s redevelopment project area with 37,000 residents, speaking 80 different languages, is bounded by La Brea Avenue to the west, Serrano Avenue to the east, Fountain Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard to the south and Franklin Avenue and the Hollywood Freeway to the north,� Webb said.

“Its 1,009 acres are currently 94% tenant-occupied and (housing) units are 19% overcrowded. Its industrial area is outdated and underutilized and sorely in need of layout revision, but with no immediate plans for expansion.�

Solutions Needed

The project manager said that Hollywood’s housing stock, while generally structurally sound, could benefit from rehabilitation through redevelopment; that its commercial core is laden with ineffective businesses and suffering from a whole gamut of economic ills, and that its tourism has but one stop--Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

“That’s a bleak picture of the present for a town with an international reputation,� Webb lamented. “But we are all quite optimistic with what has been happening since the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan was approved on May 7 of 1986.�

The plan will provide assistance with master planning, packaging, resources, and address a variety of community ills and facilitate the development of an infrastructure and public improvements that might otherwise be delayed for years, Webb stated. “There is some hope, as well, that we may be granted state approval to sell bonds.�

Budget Allotment

Hollywood’s project area (second largest redevelopment area in the county after the 1,500-acre Bunker Hill), would eventually receive an estimated total of $922 million from the Community Redevelopment Agency in its efforts to halt further decay of the world’s film capital.

The 1987-88 budget allotment for Hollywood is $4.3 million, of which $1.3 million has been earmarked for assistance to new low-income housing, and the remainder for administration and implementation of the program, Webb disclosed.

“We are now in place to help create the opportunities for investors who are making the choices and waging their bets, with full support from the offices of Councilman Mike Woo and (State) Sen.(David) Roberti (D-Los Angeles),� Webb said.

By June, a 16-month construction period will be under way on the Hollywood Galaxy, the most recent of the major projects to be announced.

It has been designed as a retail, entertainment and restaurant complex and is being developed by Kornwasser & Friedman Commercial Properties, on the northeast corner of Sycamore Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

Pedestrian Orientation

Designed on a U-shaped plan around a central courtyard, the Hollywood Galaxy features an architectural massing of four levels, each recessed from the floor below with broad walkways and connected by a network of open-air escalators.

“We wanted to create a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use complex with entry and high visibility from Hollywood Boulevard,� said Joseph K. Kornwasser, a principal of K & F with Jerald Friedman. “Our aim is to create the same kind of evening activity in Hollywood that now exists in Westwood.

“A major feature of our complex, besides its retail and restaurant facilities, will be a unique five-theater complex. We are currently negotiating with General Cinema, the largest theater chain in the United States, to establish the theater complex on the upper level as its flagship project for Hollywood.�

The two-acre property was purchased in a foreclosure sale through Bank Leumi, Kornwasser disclosed. “We are very much interested in Hollywood but our approach is understated. We like to finance our projects and to hold on to our properties,� he said, referring to other ongoing projects started by the firm in the Fairfax district, including a new building for its headquarters.

‘Glitz and Glamour’

Thomas R. Theis, project manager for Maxwell Starkman Associates, explained some of the criteria on which the architectural firm based its design for K & F. “The developer wanted a theme that would fit in with Hollywood’s revitalization concept--to bring back some of the glitz and glamour that would generate a lot of activity.

“It was important that the project provide an openness onto Hollywood Boulevard and its heavily traveled Walk of Fame. The ground level steps down to a giant courtyard, shaped like a bandstand for open-air entertainment, surrounded by a protected area for cafe-style eating.�

The escalator network will provide vertical transportation and a feeling of people moving through the open space, suggesting the architecture of the Art Deco period with a contemporary treatment. The use of glass blocks and glass-wall railing on the retail and restaurant levels plays off the lights from the shops creating an “architectural sparkle,� Theis said.

Parking, a major problem in Hollywood, has been dealt with by incorporating one split-level and three full levels of subterranean parking, with entry from Sycamore Avenue.

Westmark Development Associates (an affiliate of Tandam Realty Group), headed by Nicholas E. Olaerts and Thomas L. Harnsberger and Richard Alden, has been a strong leader in the revitalization push. The Security Pacific Building, a 12-story landmark office building, has been newly renovated and purchased by a partnership formed by Westmark.

SAG Headquarters

Barker Brothers/Paramount Theatre, the original home of the El Capitan, Hollywood’s first live theater, was completed rehabilitated by the firm in 1985, and the firm purchased and brought up to code the adjoining Masonic Temple, a landmark office/auditorium complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Orchid Avenue that is being considered for an upscale nightclub.

The refurbished SAG headquarters, known as The Renaissance Court, is now leased-with-option-to- buy from a partnership formed by Westmark that is currently involved in developing the adjacent property on the northwest corner of Sycamore Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

“We are looking forward to our expansion through this effort,� Mark Locher, SAG’s public relations director, said. “We have already contracted for 130 spaces in the new parking structure that will adjoin our building to the rear, and we anticipate leasing some space in the new office and retail structure fronting Hollywood Boulevard and Sycamore Avenue.�

Scott Milano of Merrill Lynch, the leasing agent for the project, said plans call for a new restaurant that would focus on serving the actors community.

The new 26,000-square-foot structure will be themed architecturally to the Screen Actors Guild headquarters (the former Hollywood Congregational Church), repeating its circular windows while preserving an original columned bank facade of the 1930s. The site once housed a Middle Eastern restaurant and a museum, a massage parlor.

Two-Block Area

The $150-million Hollywood Promenade, designed to be the cornerstone of Hollywood revitalization, is expected to break ground by mid-year, according to a spokesman for the developer, Melvin Simon & Associates.

The Indianapolis-based developer will create an office, hotel, retail, entertainment complex and will house the Hollywood Museum on the southern half of a two-block area bounded by Hollywood Boulevard, Highland Avenue, Franklin Avenue and Orange Drive.

“When the nation’s second largest developer and manager of shopping centers picks our town for its first major West Coast development commitment, that should tell us something about the potential of Hollywood,� said Bill Welsh, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president since 1980, who has seen several previous attempts at revitalization fail.

“We expect the efforts of heavyweights like Melvin Simon Associates and other hard-nosed financial corporations willing to wage the risk, to start the ball rolling for Hollywood. There is a great deal of interest out there and the centennial celebration is helping to draw that attention to Hollywood.�

Hotel Included

Designed by the Jerde Partnership, chief designer for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games as well as the Westside Pavilion and the Seventh Street Marketplace, the Hollywood Promenade will wrap around and preserve Mann’s Chinese Theater.

It will include a 400-room hotel, 400,000 square feet of new office space and about 275,000 square feet of festival retail/entertainment space featuring cinemas and restaurants, as well as the 150,000-square-foot Hollywood Museum, designed to memorialize and chronicle achievements of the entertainment industry.

Completion of the Hollywood Promenade is targeted for mid-1989.

The 400-room Roosevelt Hotel, serving as the official Hollywood Centennial headquarters and the site of the first Academy Awards in 1927, completed Phase 1 of its renovation plan in December, 1985.

“Our hotel will now undergo additional refurbishment, totaling $35 million, with an increase of our suites to about 50 or 60, in addition to meeting and conference facilities,� said Irwin Jay Deutch, Century Pacific’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

Hotel Construction

“Our plans also include a new restaurant fronting Hollywood Boulevard, with an upbeat, exciting theme. We haven’t yet picked a name for it, but we envision the facility as somewhere between a Hard Rock Cafe and a Johnny Rockets.�

Deutch said a bar and additional retail space will be added to the hotel lobby and a swimming pool to the cabana area. Construction will begin in the spring.

“I think people want to be part of the Hollywood scene again and I think once they see what’s happening, they’ll want to stay there. It’s hard to fight patterns but I think we can expect a real turnaround for Hollywood.�