2 Major Studio-Anchored Projects Proposed for North Hollywood

Reflecting the growing importance of Metro Rail, two developers working with major studios submitted competing building plans Friday for projects that promise to transform the humble face of North Hollywood.

One group has proposed a 1.7-million-square-foot development anchored by a CBS Center Studios-managed studio, which would include a culinary institute, restaurants, banquet space and an 1,875-seat performing arts center.

The project would create more than 4,000 jobs, proponents say.

Not to be outdone, longtime California retail developer J. Allen Radford filed a revised proposal Friday that dwarfs the competition: a $1-billion, 4.3-million-square-foot project consisting of studios, movie theaters, a hotel, condominiums, four 20-story office towers and an open-air theater.

The project would create about 14,000 jobs and take 10 years to build.

“This is a one-billion bang for North Hollywood,” said Radford.

Radford is competing with a development partnership of local builders, William Kokott and Nicholas Angelos of ANKO Construction Inc., and New York investor Henry Cabot Lodge III of American Corporate Real Estate Inc. Kokott is the president of the partnership, called Media Centre Academy LLC, of Beverly Hills.

“It’s the entire concept that makes [our project] work and draws people,” said Kokott. “The studio portion draws business and office support. . . . The performing arts center enhances it all.”

Both plans were solicited by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the city agency with the power to condemn properties and earn millions in property taxes. The CRA will help to assemble properties for the project, including a key six-acre portion owned by the California Department of Transportation.

CRA directors and the Los Angeles City Council will decide which group will redevelop the area.

Regardless of who wins the competition, North Hollywood, an area dominated by fast-food stands and auto shops, would be dramatically transformed.

Both projects are likely to meet opposition from some neighbors, as well as business owners who don’t want to sell.

“This proposal proposes to use the powers of eminent domain to remove businesses that have been in that area a long time,” said Mildred Weller, a North Hollywood business owner and longtime CRA critic. “The moral question is, should the government have a right to remove people from properties by eminent domain when they have been there for 20 or 40 years?”

There is growing demand for entertainment industry uses in the area.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said David Young, a senior vice president with Capital Commercial Real Estate Services, who handles studio and industrial deals. “There is a real strong desire now for state-of-the-art studios, which in this area doesn’t exist. The problem for industry is warehouse space converted to quasi-sound stages. It’s not adequate for them. They really need high-clearance, state-of-the-art sound stages.”

Such facilities are being planned for Valencia, and in Los Angeles near Glendale, he said. But both locations are a little too far from the heart of the entertainment industry in the southeast San Fernando Valley.

A studio that got off the ground in North Hollywood “would be a winner,” Young predicted.

The interest in the North Hollywood site shows that developers are recognizing the potential benefit of locating near a Metro Rail station, said Rockard Delgadillo, deputy Los Angeles mayor for economic development. The MTA is expected to open the North Hollywood station of the Red Line subway in May 2001.

Both proposed developments would surround the station on Lankershim Boulevard and rely heavily on the subway to provide access for both customers and workers.

Carol Inge, an MTA development specialist, said, “We are delighted. We have always hoped and expected that our subway stations would be catalysts for economic development. . . . I think that’s what’s happening.”

The developers agree.

“The opportunities are immense,” said Radford. “You will be able to walk out of [these offices], into the subway, and with safety, consistency, reliability and convenience be downtown at the Civic Center in 22 minutes. We are going to say, leave your car at home.”

His competitor, Kokott, said his interest was also piqued by the station. “I think the subway station will provide a hub for the entire Valley,” he said.

The Radford proposal would include the 11-acre site above the underground MTA station, where his company, JARCO/SLG&G; LLC, plans to build two 20-story office buildings and a 300-room hotel.

Also included in the Radford project, to be called the North Hollywood Studio Complex, are two other 20-story office towers and 350,000 square feet of retail stores, including 20 restaurants, a 20-screen movie theater, 500,000 square feet of offices, 400 condominiums and a 1,000-seat open-air theater.

The project would be anchored by 10 sound stages and 180,000 square feet of pre- and post-production offices, plus commissaries, film libraries and screening rooms. The proposal also includes about 18,000 parking spaces.

Kokott’s competing Academy Media Centre project includes eight sound stages, bungalows, offices, storage and support buildings, shops, restaurants, a 90,000-square-foot performing arts center, an eight-story office tower and two four-story office towers.

The project includes a culinary school run by Robert Serin, three more office buildings, 178 apartments and parking.

Radford, based in Santa Monica, said he has built about 15 million square feet of retail development in California over the last 30 years. Kokott has built scattered projects including condominiums, the Harbor/UCLA Medical Foundation building, the auditorium at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and two shopping centers now under construction in Las Vegas.

Development experience is likely to weigh heavily in the CRA’s selection, but so will finances. Kokott said he has letters of interest from banks for debt financing and equity financing sufficient to fund his entire project, while Radford said he has financing for the first phase, and would obtain financing for later phases as they unfold.

“At the end of the day, we will evaluate who will get to success in the fastest amount of time,” said Delgadillo, the deputy mayor. “My sense is that if we let the momentum die, the whole project will fall apart. We have to capture the momentum we have now.”