Bold Plans for Union Station Area Unveiled

A huge new shopping, hotel and office complex that could dramatically transform one of downtown Los Angeles’ most historic areas and position Eastside Councilman Richard Alatorre as a major new player in large-scale Central City development is being proposed for the Union Station area by city officials.

A new development “strategy” just released by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is one of the boldest new projects proposed for downtown and one likely to stimulate intense debate among local business owners, city planning officials, slow-growth activists and preservationists.

Olvera Street merchants, whose families have run small shops at the historic plaza across from Union Station for generations, already are worried that they may be overwhelmed by development. And Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a slow-growth advocate and possible future mayoral rival of Alatorre’s, is suggesting that Union Station development will be an issue of citywide concern.

‘New Urban Center’

The Community Redevelopment Agency plan calls for creation of a “new urban center” that would include millions of square feet of office high-rises, a 400-room hotel and entertainment and shopping areas, as well as a relocated and expanded Los Angeles Children’s Museum. A railroad museum and possibly a Latino history museum may also be included. The proposal, which the CRA says could serve as a catalyst for new development in the fallow industrial area on the northeast cusp of downtown, is being compared by city officials to popular “marketplace” revitalization developments in historic downtown districts of Baltimore, Boston, St. Louis and other cities.

With the initial phases proposed for the next 10 to 15 years, the project would rise on 67 acres of land around two historic landmarks--the Union Station train depot and the post office’s twin-towered Terminal Annex building.

CRA officials say a new office district makes sense near Union Station because it will be a major public transit hub for the soon-to-be completed extension of the El Monte busway, the Metro Rail subway now being built, existing San Diego and Orange County commuter trains and a possible Eastside trolley line.

“That’s a big chunk of property,” said Al Dorskind, chairman of the development arm of MCA Inc., the Universal City-based entertainment conglomerate and one of several prominent firms interested in the project. “If you took 70 acres and overlayed it (near) 6th and Figueroa, it would (cover) much of downtown.”

As Los Angeles’ largest commercial development east of City Hall, the project would be a vehicle for Alatorre, an ambitious former state assemblyman who many observers believe wants to be the city’s first Latino mayor, to strengthen his base of support.

And Alatorre has been positioning himself to harvest the juicy political plum since shortly after joining the council.

As chairman of the City Council’s redistricting panel two years ago, Alatorre pushed through a little-noticed boundary change that brought his district across the Los Angeles River and encircled the Union Station area, which the CRA was already studying.

And early this year he landed a coveted state program that will give significant tax breaks to companies that locate in the proposed project and hire residents of the Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno areas of his district.

“It puts him as a Hispanic leader in a position to do what (longtime downtown Councilman) Gil Lindsay has done--to bring to his district the benefits of development,” said CRA chairman Jim Wood, a county labor leader and close political ally of Mayor Tom Bradley and Alatorre.

One knowledgeable downtown corporate executive said that Central City business leaders are beginning to look ahead to whom they want to represent them after the 87-year-old Lindsay dies or retires, an issue that could loom large in the next council redistricting in the early 1990s. “(Union Station) will be a real test for (Alatorre) to see if he can bring everybody together to move that . . . development opportunity forward,” said the executive, asking not to be named. “All the development community will be watching how skillfully he handles himself. . . . It’s an opportunity to position himself to represent a large portion of downtown with the backing of the business community.”

Some of Alatorre’s Eastside business allies also hope to build new bridges to downtown development.

Latino Controversy

One of those is the East Los Angeles Community Union or TELACU, a controversial Latino job development and business organization. TELACU has been criticized in recent years for questionable use of federal grants, far-flung business ventures and its business dealings with Alatorre’s predecessor, former Eastside Councilman Art Snyder. Alatorre was fined earlier this year by the state Fair Political Practices Commission for attempting to steer a large city contract to TELACU after the organization had paid him a $1,000 speaking fee.

John Echeveste, a TELACU spokesman, said his organization plans to compete for the U.S. Postal Service part of the project as an “overall developer . . . (and) after that a manager/operator would be a real possibility.” Alatorre acknowledged that he has discussed the project with TELACU officials, but “not in any depth.”

So far, Alatorre has not outlined in any detail what he thinks should be built near Union Station. He said his main interest is ensuring that Olvera Street and other historic landmarks are preserved.

“I’m not interested in seeing the area become another Century City,” Alatorre said. “But I am interested in looking at different concepts . . . . Certainly, the preservation of (Olvera Street) and the integrity of it (is) more important than skyscrapers.”

Cause for Alarm

Latino merchants there are worried nonetheless.

“We’re concerned about the overall impact of the proposed commercial and retail activities on Olvera Street,” said Vivien Consuelo Bonzo, president of the Olvera Street Merchants Assn., a group of business tenants in the city-owned El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Park. “We want to make sure that all of the projects . . . complement each other and do not compete directly for the same dollar.”

Bonzo said merchants, whose families helped preserve Olvera Street before it became a public park, also are concerned that major development in the surrounding area could lead to sharp rent increases that will force them out.

Redevelopment agency chairman Jim Wood said there also are concerns about competition among business owners in Chinatown, to the west of Union Station, and Little Tokyo, to the south. “The challenge I see is how do we work with these existing communities to bring into being a new entity that does not overshadow them,” Wood said.

Preservationists are concerned that a long list of historic structures in the area be preserved and not buried in modern architecture. “The entire scope of development will bear very careful scrutiny,” said Ruthann Lehrer, a historic preservation activist and UCLA instructor.

For any commercial development to take place, Alatorre must get the City Council to make basic changes in both the area community plan and the properties’ zoning, which together regulate what can be built.

Slow-growth advocate Yaroslavsky said Union Station-area development, because of its size and historical significance, is “not a project or problem of local dimensions. It’s like the airport or something of that magnitude and should be looked at in that context.”

But Alatorre is already attempting to steer his project out of the path of the slow-growth steamroller.

“(My constituents) are not part of that problem,” he said. “We have not been participants in the (city’s) revitalization. . . . Why should we have to be negatively impacted for the ills of other areas? There is a need for reasoned growth in the district I happen to represent.”

Crucial Question

Just how the Union Station project should proceed is a key question. There are several options. Alatorre insists that no decision has been made, but he hints that a new redevelopment area may be needed. That is one of the only ways to generate funds needed for streets, parking, rehabilitation of historical buildings, museums and other public improvements, Alatorre said.

Through redevelopment, the city becomes a partner with developers to stimulate new construction in areas officially determined to be “blighted”--meaning they are under-utilized and not expected to develop on their own.

A redevelopment area also gives the local council member a stronger hand in guiding the project, CRA officials acknowledged.

But Olvera Street merchants say they want no part of a redevelopment project, and some planners and developers doubt that there is a real need for publicly financed intervention in the Union Station area. “I would personally have a difficult time making a finding that (the Union Station property) is blighted,” said Dan Garcia, president of the city Planning Commission, one body that must approve new redevelopment areas.

DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR UNION STATION

The city’s new Union Station/Terminal Annex development plan calls for 3.2 million square feet of retail shop, hotel and office development built in two phases over the next 10 to 15 years--with the possibilty of more high-rise office development in later years.

1. A planned (second phase) 450,000-square-foot office building and parking structure. Possibly an additional million square feet of offices.

2. Possible rehabilitation and conversion of Terminal Annex Post Office building to include expanded downtown Children’s Museum and other museums, rental office space, retail shops and a small post office.

3. Among the first targets is rehabilitation of Union Station to add shops inside and out and strolling and entertainment areas.

4. In first phase, terraced retail shopping/restaurant area is planned with 400-room

hotel, office mid-rises and high-rises near the Santa Ana Freeway and Macy Street and railroad museum. In second phase, an additional million square feet of office buildings.

5. Possible eventual (third phase) 2.7 million square feet of high-rise offices and shops, and a 1,500-space parking structure.

6. A transit center serving Metro Rail subway and El Monte busway, possibly a future trolley line, will be located under a 1,000-space parking structure. Eventually (in a possible third phase) additional offices would be built on top of the parking structure.