San Pedro Gets New Face
An 11-story office building will be a part of the $38.5-million, 1 1/2-acre Pacific Place in the Beacon Street Redevelopment Project in San Pedro, once the site of notorious seamen’s bars and brothels.
Pacific Place will front 6th Street between Centre and Palos Verdes streets.
Construction will begin in July, with completion scheduled for the second quarter of 1990.
Jerry Grimaldi, Community Redevelopment Agency project manager, said the total Beacon Street project will be completed in eight to 10 years. Phase 1 will consist of the tower with 242,000 square feet of office space and 23,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. An adjacent 7-story parking structure will serve about 800 cars.
A Phase 2 tower will contain a maximum of 300,000 square feet of additional office and retail space.
Landscaped Plaza
A landscaped plaza with patio dining areas will be located between the first tower and the parking structure.
A joint venture of Tutor-Saliba Properties and InterOcean Development Associates will develop the project. The Nadel Partnership will be architects for the first phase.
Logicon Inc., a provider of electronic systems and technology services, primarily to the U. S. government, will be the anchor tenant for Phase 1, with the signing of a 15-year lease for 150,000 square feet. A Tutor-Saliba official said 70% of the first phase has been leased.
The Bank of America has committed to finance the development.
Robert Traub, deputy design director of the Nadel Partnership, said the first phase building would be rectangular, with an 11-story octagonal tower rising from the entrance. It will be capped with a mosaic dome reminiscent of a lighthouse. The lobby will have a 2-story rotunda.
Pacific Place is part of the total 59.6-acre Beacon Street redevelopment project. Among the buildings already completed are a 12-story, 180-unit senior citizen center, a 133-unit townhouse project for low- and-moderate income family housing, a 5-story Harbor Department administration office, two 3-story office and retail buildings and a 116-room Sunrise motor hotel.
Higher Home Values
“Pacific Place will be a significant push in the trend toward higher home values in San Pedro,” said Sal Sorrentino, president of the San Pedro-Wilmington Board of Realtors.
Sorrentino, manager of Landmark Realty, San Pedro, said during the past year San Pedro home prices have risen “at least 20%, and that’s a conservative figure.”
John Tuite, CRA administrator, said that property values within the Beacon Street project area have increased about 400% since redevelopment began in 1969.
Kay Schultz, curator of the San Pedro Bay Historical Society, said the project represents a long-term change that is making San Pedro more like the rest of the metropolitan area.
“I’m not opposed to change,” she said. “But I miss the hills covered with lupine and mustard. And most of all, I miss the the meadowlarks.”
The area being redeveloped had been part of the original downtown area that started to go downhill economically during the 1930s. Eventually, it became known by the world’s seamen for its notorious brothels and bars. During World War II, members of the Navy shore patrol would only enter the area in teams.
In 1969, the CRA began its redevelopment planning for the area.
Construction will start across 6th Street in April on a 10-story, 232-room Sheraton hotel. Completion is scheduled in late 1989.
The Los Angeles Harbor Department has also contracted with the redevelopment agency and with HCT Development Co., Hollywood, to develop a minimum of 100,000 square feet of office and retail space. This will be on Harbor Boulevard between 3rd, 5th and Palos Verdes streets. Construction is scheduled to start in about a year and a half.
