La Brea Ave.-Rodeo Road Complex Gets Face Lift

Redevelopment efforts in the Baldwin Hills area will receive another shot in the arm Monday, when a $1.5-million renovation of a 13.5-acre mixed-use complex at the northeast corner of La Brea Avenue and Rodeo Road is completed.

The development, begun 34 years ago as the corporate headquarters of the Thrifty Corp. drugstore chain, was purchased by Trammel Crow Co.’s Western Los Angeles division last fall.

It has a two-story office building occupied by the General Service Administration, plus a Thrify Drug and a Thrifty-owned auto-parts store.

A massive warehouse/distribution center used by Thrifty is also on the site, as is a two-story parking structure. All told, the project has 529,094 square feet of office, retail and warehouse space.

As part of its privately funded renovation, Trammel Crow painted the buildings, resurfaced most of the parking lot, added landscaping and fencing and installed new roofs on two buildings. It also renamed the facility the Baldwin Hills Business Complex.

Project architect is Arechaederra/Hong/Treiman Architects of Santa Monica. The newly refurbished complex is valued at more than $30 million.

Although Thrifty sold the property to Trammel Crow, it agreed to lease all of its space back and will continue to employ about 300 people at the site. Trammel Crow assumed the original lease between the General Services Administration and Thrifty, which means the GSA will retain its office space where 120 people work.

Allen K. Meredith, a Trammel Crow executive, said the intersection of La Brea and Rodeo has an extremely high traffic count--about 80,000 cars a day--and the complex is in a part of the city that is being actively redeveloped.

The nearby Crenshaw Shopping Center is undergoing a $100-million renovation, and smaller rehab projects in the area have also been launched.