County Requests Bids for Complex : Leased-Land Office Development Would Alter Focus of Civic Center
For many years the site housed the old Los Angeles State Building.
Severely damaged in the 1971 earthquake, the state structure was demolished and its foundations--transformed into a park-like plaza--served as a gathering place for Civic Center lunchers, a bus-ticketing center for the 1984 Olympic Games, a temporary home for the poor and as a protest site for religious groups.
Through it all, the property--strategically located in the core of Downtown Los Angeles’ Civic Center--gained recognition as one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the nation.
Test of Marketability
Now Los Angeles County, the state and city are ready to test its marketability.
A call for proposals is going out for private developers to put up a 20-story or so commercial office building, subterranean parking and other support facilities on the property between Spring Street and Broadway, on the north side of 1st Street.
The request, containing information about the type of project county officials envision for the site, is being mailed to 200 potential developers. It’s also being advertised nationally to get “maximum exposure,” as a county spokesman put it, for the multimillion-dollar project.
Spring Selection Planned
Sometime next spring, probably in May, a developer producing what is judged the best plan will be selected to carry out the project. The deal is expected to be worth $1 billion to the county, state and city over the lifetime of a 66-year ground lease.
Ranking as one of the Civic Center’s most ambitious undertakings, the $130-million complex will include, in addition to the office building, completion of the landscaped Civic Center Mall between Broadway and Spring Street, three levels of underground parking for 1,600 cars and space for a daytime child-care center.
Estimates are that the office structure alone, placed diagonally at the corner of 1st and Spring Streets, will cost $80 million. The parking facility will be built under the mall and office building and is estimated at $30 million. The cost to complete the mall is figured at $20 million.
Because of its scope, the project, of course, is expected to have a significant impact on the Civic Center. Its development, for example, will break up an alignment of public buildings clustered within the Civic Center’s strict boundaries and heretofore devoted solely to governmental and cultural functions.
Area’s Focus Changes
By most counts, the Civic Center is recognized as the area extending nine blocks from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power building east to Parker Center, the police headquarters. Historically, city planners have viewed the Civic Center as a commercial-free complex of public buildings.
But the rising cost of land, coupled with uncertainty about what to do with the old state building property, changed all that.
The office tower and mall site occupies three-quarters of the block bounded by Broadway and 1st, Spring and Temple streets and is considered a “hot property” because of its key downtown location, according to William Wise, an analyst in the county’s chief administrative office. The county is the lead agency in the joint state-county-city venture.
In a report to the county Board of Supervisors, Chief Administrative Officer James C. Hankla described the commercial office venture as “particularly unique (because) it involves three public agencies which will be 66-year partners in one of the most significant projects nationally in a downtown/civic center area.”
Site Is Urban Rarity
“First and Broadway represents a rarity in a major metropolitan area in that it is both vacant and strategically located,” he said. “Our market studies show a strong potential demand, thereby creating a major long-term revenue source.”
Indeed, county planners foresee a “window of opportunity” developing in 1988-1989 for new downtown office space coming on the market at that time.
Hankla also told the board, whose approval--as well as the state’s and city’s--was necessary to get the project under way, that the Civic Center venture is another step in the county’s speeded-up asset-development program to realize new long-term revenue sources. A new state law adopted three years ago makes such long-term ground leases possible. The county has similar ventures either in negotiation or under construction at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, the Pitchess Honor Ranch and the old Long Beach General Hospital.
Under the Civic Center plan, William J. Lewis, the program’s lease administrator, explained that the county--and in this case the state and city--will be partners with a private developer by making their own real estate available for development.
‘Buildings That Will Compete’
He said one of the county program’s goals is to get “buildings that will compete.” For example, he said, the Civic Center structure is intended as a “signature” building which will create its own identity, thus becoming a focal point at 1st and Spring streets.
However, both Lewis and Wise said the structure is being planned so that it neither overshadows nor detracts from the 27-story City Hall across Spring Street nor Times Mirror Square south of the site across 1st Street.
This idea, it was pointed out, would be at least partly achieved by placing the building at an angle to 1st and Spring streets, a concept shown in illustrative drawings by Albert C. Martin & Associates. Wise said the private group that wins the development job will be expected to follow the diagonal concept outlined by Martin, whose architectural firm has been serving as the county’s consultant on this and other projects.
While the basic concept for the Civic Center complex is set, Wise said the successful developer will have the option of selecting his own architect. He pointed out that this would not preclude Martin, whose firm has been associated with many major downtown projects, including the City Hall, from getting the job.
South Half of Site
Under the plan, the new office tower will occupy the south half of the site on virtually the same spot where the old State Building went up in 1931. Following the theme already established in earlier phases west of Broadway, the mall will be developed just south of the county’s Criminal Courts Building and directly across Spring Street from City Hall’s main entrance.
The space next to the Criminal Courts Building has been used by the county for surface parking but eventually was to be used for the last phase of El Paseo de Los Pobladores de Los Angeles, the county mall.
The lease agreement would permit the mall--its earlier completion halted by Proposition 13’s limitations--to be extended into this area, with the parking garage to be built underneath and under the office tower itself. Four hundred parking spaces would be set aside for the county, with the remaining 1,200 earmarked for the office tower and public use.
Meanwhile, space for the child- care center, which would be capable of handling 100 small children and infants, would be provided in the office building. This facility is a pet project of the county supervisors and is being included in the request for proposals because of the needs of large numbers of county employees--about 10,000--and other workers who converge daily on the Civic Center.
County Has Largest Share
The county owns the largest piece of the total 4.6-acre Civic Center site. Its share is 47% compared to 46% for the state and 7% for the city. Over the life of the lease, the county and state will realize about $450 million with the city, whose ownership claims were settled with the state, getting the remainder. When the lease expires, the land and improvements will revert to the three public entities.
Under the development plan, the ground lease is expected to be finalized in November next year. County officials say construction would get under way almost immediately.
Several years of intense negotiations have gone into planning the public-private venture. Basically it is an outgrowth of the state’s unsuccessful attempt to interest other public agencies in taking over the old State Building site--about two acres. Recent estimates valued the state property alone at more than $8 million.
Initially, state officials planned to build a new Los Angeles state office building on the site, fronting on 1st Street, after the old earthquake-damaged structure was razed. Months of indecision followed until the state, lured by offers of help from the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, finally selected a new site on the east side of Spring Street between 3rd and 4th streets.
The CRA views the relocated state building--a $175-million complex adjacent to downtown’s Skid Row--as a major force in the revitalization of Spring Street. Work on the building, which will be the largest state office structure in California, was set to begin this month but is now scheduled for next April.
