World Trade Center OKd : Work on Long Beach Venture to Start in 1986
The final plan for the Long Beach World Trade Center, revealed publicly Monday, shows that when its four development phases are completed, it will contain 2.2 million square feet of commercial space and a major hotel and have a total value of $450 million.
The ground lease was signed on April 5 between the Port of Long Beach, which assembled and owns the downtown site, and the developer, IDM/Kajima, a joint venture of Long Beach-based IDM Corp. and Kajima International, the American subsidiary of Japan’s Kajima Corp.
The action came just one week after the formal presentation in Ontario of a grant extending Port of Long Beach Foreign Trade Zone No. 50 to include the 1,350-acre, $1-billion California Commerce Center adjacent to Ontario International Airport.
The World Trade Center package was approved Monday by the Board of Harbor Commissioners. IDM will be the managing partner and Kajima the builder. The 66-year lease provides that IDM/Kajima may buy the site in the 10th year.
Construction of the first phase, 500,000 square feet of commercial space valued at $140 million, is targeted to begin in mid-1986 on the 12.7-acre site between Ocean Boulevard and Broadway and the Long Beach Freeway and Magnolia Avenue. Construction time is expected to be 24 months.
Construction of a 400- to 600-room hotel, designated Phase 2 and to be valued at $110 million, is expected to begin a few months after the first phase starts but to be finished concurrently, since the hotel’s construction time will be only about 18 months. Negotiations are in progress for an owner-operator of the hotel, which will contain retail, restaurant and banquet facilities.
Phase 1 will consist primarily of a 26-story office building and surrounding two-story retail and service facilities, forming a sort of visual “base” for the tower. The tower will be faced with granite and glass; a glass “spine” will run up each side, differing slightly on the four different walls, to the penthouse floors where the World Trade Club will be situated.
Membership in the club will be open to World Trade Center tenants, and it will offer first-class dining, entertaining and other services useful to those involved in international trade.
Construction of a health club, which will include tennis courts, is planned to be concurrent with the hotel development.
More Towers Slated
After the first increment, Phases 1 and 2, along Ocean Boulevard, subsequent phases will include two more towers along Broadway and a taller tower in the center of the site, along with more two-story space containing retail and service businesses and restaurants from haute cuisine to coffee shops.
The later phases will also include a theater and automobile full-service station--filling a conspicuous vacancy in downtown Long Beach. The low-rise structures will total 300,000 square feet on completion.
Also prominent in the center will be educational facilities and the most advanced telecommunication equipment, including a hookup to a satellite network that will connect world trade centers around the globe.
The Long Beach center is a member of the international World Trade Centers Assn., which has 33 centers in operation, 13 under construction and 32 in planning stages. Architect of the center is Ross Wou/DMJM (Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall).
Experienced Builders
IDM Corp., 2150 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, is a diversified real estate financial firm with nearly 20 years of experience as a developer. It is handling leasing.
Kajima Corp. is Japan’s oldest and one of its largest builders, ranked among the 10 largest in the world; it built Japan’s first high rise (in Tokyo, when that city’s height limitation was removed in 1968, and has built three international trade centers, in Tokyo and Kobe, Japan, and Berlin.
Port of Long Beach Foreign Trade Zone No. 50 is the only such zone in Southern California. Previously, the Toyota Motor Manufacturing truck-bed plant in Long Beach and the National Steel & Shipbuilding facility in San Diego had been designated as sub-zones but the inclusion of the Ontario commercial center is the zone’s first expansion.
The expansion has made it one of the largest combination public and private trade zones in the United States, according to Long Beach Harbor Commission President James H. Gray. Mentioning the value of adding access to air transport to the port’s current highway and rail access capabilities, he stressed that the move will be highly beneficial in attracting new industry to Southern California and encouraging existing industry to expand.
When the World Trade Center project was announced almost exactly two years ago, James H. McJunkin, the port’s executive director, called attention to the present condition of overseas trade, scattered “from the seacoast to the mountains, more than most major industries.
Evidence of Quality
“It has no real focal point,” he continued, and thus the two purposes of the Long Beach center are to provide a focal point for that industry and to group and create service firms and facilities for it.
Referring to the project as currently planned and ready, M. J. Choppin, IDM president and board chairman, said, “We’ve had some of the world’s leading architects and designers (in Ross Wou/DMJM) design the center, and this plan is evidence of the quality that will unfold over the next several years.
“It truly represents the spirit of partnership and cooperation we’ve experienced over the past months with the Port of Long Beach.
“This is a World Trade Center, not just an office complex. It is designed specifically to encourage and enhance world trade in the Long Beach/Los Angeles port complex as well as the greater metropolitan area.
“Last year there was more trade out of the West Coast than the East Coast, and the Long Beach/Los Angeles harbor complex had 60% of it--thus, these ports are the hub of trade with the Pacific Rim and the Pacific’s gateway to the United States.”
