Sizing It Up : Dispute Prompts L.A. to Check Footage of Fox Plaza Tower

Los Angeles city building officials will soon be poking around the nooks and crannies of the Fox Plaza tower in Century City with tape measures to answer a question that should have long ago been settled: How big is it?

The unusual inspection was requested by City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky to allay suspicion among community activists that the office tower, which gained worldwide exposure as the setting of the movie “Die Hard,” was overbuilt by several thousand square feet.

The activists have questioned the large discrepancy between the amount of space for lease, as recorded in county records, and the amount of square footage that had been negotiated in agreements with both Los Angeles and Beverly Hills prior to construction.

Business executives familiar with the building said the discrepancy exists strictly on paper and is the result of the use of different formulas.

But if the tower, whose tenants include former President Ronald Reagan, turns out to be larger than permitted, it may present problems for 20th Century Fox’s plans to revamp and expand its nearby studios. Fox developed the building, which opened in 1987, but has since sold it.

Should the building turn out to be larger than originally billed, opponents of the Fox studio expansion can be expected to cite the overbuilding as evidence of Fox’s untrustworthiness and gain leverage in their efforts to scale back the expansion project.

Fox officials have been hard at work trying to win over their neighbors for their expansion plan. Fox contends that it would have to leave the Westside if it cannot expand in Century City. The company had earlier planned to develop the lot with luxury condominiums.

Two condominium associations, Century Woods and Century Towers, have voted to back Fox’s expansion plan, but there is strong opposition in some homeowner quarters.

Several city officials and a spokesman for Fox reject the contention that Fox Plaza was overbuilt. “This is a mirage,” said Fox Vice President David Handelman. “You are chasing a mirage.”

Rick Holguin, assistant chief of the city’s building division, agreed, saying the allegations were made even less credible by the building’s size having been the subject of a lawsuit. The city of Beverly Hills had sued Fox, forcing the company to cut down the building from 775,000 square feet to 650,000 square feet. The lower figure was also agreed upon with the city of Los Angeles.

“I don’t see there’s any basis for the allegations being made,” Holguin said.

The amount of leasable space, according to documents filed by the current owner, La Salle Partners Ltd. of Chicago, is 710,000 square feet. Handelman said the building’s architect calculated it at roughly the same--714,000 square feet.

Bill McGregor, managing developer of the proposed Fox expansion, said the discrepancy between the 650,000 square footage figure and the larger leasable space figures stems from the different, legal ways to calculate the size of a building.

To meet the cities’ requirements, it is not necessary to include space for mechanical equipment rooms, electrical closets, phone equipment closets and other utility space. In calculating the rentable or leasable space, however, a different set of rules apply, including a way to measure the outside walls that results in a higher number.

But Laura Lake, a Westside homeowner activist, contends the numbers are too far apart to be explained away by the use of differing formulas. “This is a very serious discrepancy that needs to be resolved,” Lake said.

Lake noted a recent New York City case in which the courts required a developer to tear down a building that was overbuilt. But that is unlikely to happen here. “New York is not Los Angeles,” said Holguin, of the Building and Safety Department.

The matter will very likely be put to rest once calculations on the 34-story salmon-colored skyscraper are completed, probably within a week.

“Whatever it is, it is, and we’ll go from there,” said Ginny Kruger, a Yaroslavsky planning deputy.