Development Sought on Strip Next to Horton Plaza : Downtown Loft Apartments Being Considered

The Centre City Development Corp. and the owners of Horton Plaza are in the initial stages of negotiating an agreement that would transform a narrow, barren spot of land on the controversial 4th Avenue side of the shopping center into about 50 loft-style apartments.

If the proposal works, it will not only replace the plain, erector-set style facade that has drawn much criticism, especially from Gaslamp Quarter merchants, but it also will advance the CCDC’s goal of adding more housing downtown. CCDC is the agency in charge of downtown redevelopment.

Gerald Trimble, the CCDC’s top administrator, said Tuesday that the proposal is still in the early stages and that he is worried that public discussion of the plan might scare off Horton Plaza’s four major department stores, which must approve the project.

Trimble also said, however, that in the past two weeks he has already told his board of directors, Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Gaslamp Quarter officials, among others, about the project and that the department stores also have been told.

In essence, the plan is for the CCDC to pay Ernest W. Hahn Inc., which owns the shopping center, about $1 million to $1.5 million for 60 to 75 parking spaces in Horton Plaza’s 2,574-car parking garage, as well as for the 350-foot-by-50-foot parcel along 4th Avenue.

Proposals Sought

The CCDC would seek proposals from developers to build about 50 loft-style apartments in a 6-story building that would cover the outside of the parking garage. Additionally, about 6,000 square feet on the ground floor would be set aside for retail uses. The CCDC would retain ownership of the land.

The Hahn company has told the CCDC that it is not interested in building the apartments.

The parking spaces in the garage set aside for the apartment building would be walled off from the rest of the spaces in the garage, Trimble said.

“We’re attempting to put this together,” he said. “I’m very, very stoked about this development, to use one of my kid’s words.”

Initially, Trimble and Hahn officials, principally John Gilchrist, wanted to put an office building on the site, but because of the configuration of the property, that “turned out to be inefficient,” Trimble said.

Idea Takes Hold

In the past few weeks, the idea of loft-style apartments, which had surfaced once before about a year ago, took hold. Gilchrist began talking to the department stores--Robinson’s, Nordstrom, Mervyn’s and the Broadway--about the idea, a process that is continuing. Aside from the department stores, the Hahn company would need to obtain approval from its lender who financed the construction of the garage. Gilchrist was not available for comment Tuesday.

CCDC has hired an architect, Richard Bundy, to do some preliminary design work.

“I’d like to get construction under way this year, if possible,” Trimble said. “Everyone is enthusiastic about it and wants to move forward. I hope we can do it.”