N. Hollywood Sets Stage for Tourism : Officials Hope Renewal Project Will Create New Image for Blighted Area

In the best-case scenario, the first commercial development in the North Hollywood revitalization area will become a bustling business and retail plaza that attracts hordes of photo-snapping tourists.

In the worst-case scenario, merchants and businesses will be slow to lease shops and offices in the project, in the heart of North Hollywood’s most deteriorated section.

Whatever the outcome, The Academy, a large office and retail complex, will be the most important commercial development in the North Hollywood Redevelopment Project area because its success or failure will set the pace for growth in the economically depressed neighborhood, community leaders and project officials said.

“If it works, it will stimulate the rest of the project,” said Jerry Belcher, manager of the North Hollywood redevelopment area for the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Landmark Potential

For now at least, there is widespread optimism throughout North Hollywood that The Academy--so named because it will house the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences headquarters--is a landmark in the making.

Construction started last month on the $41-million project after four years of planning and delays. It will include an 8-story office building, a shopping mall, a 200-room hotel and 200 apartments at the northeast corner of Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards.

But it will be the television Hall of Fame Plaza, complete with a 27-foot-tall waterfall and towering replica of the prestigious Emmy Award--the golden trophy of a streamlined lady lifting a globe into the air--that project officials hope will lure visitors eager to shop in boutiques and eat in patio restaurants.

And if the idea really catches on, “that Emmy statue is going to be one of the three most photographed sites in Southern California, behind the Hollywood sign and the Mann’s Chinese Theater,” said Ken Adkins, co-chairman of Kensely Corp., which is developing the site in partnership with Kumagai Gumi, a Japanese corporation.

Television Theme

Indeed, it is the television theme that project officials said is crucial to marketing the project. “Otherwise it’s just a bunch of office buildings,” Belcher said.

Leo Chaloukian, first vice president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, said that in exchange for lending its name to the project, the organization will receive “extremely favorable rates” for office space as well as use of a 600-seat screening theater on the site. The academy also plans to create a television hall of fame at the plaza, with TV memorabilia and exhibits.

“This give us additional exposure and enhances our name,” Chaloukian said. “Isn’t that the name of the game?”

Plans for The Academy were approved by Los Angeles City Council members in 1984. It has always been envisioned as the crowning jewel of the 750-acre North Hollywood redevelopment zone created by the council in 1979.

Property Bought

In 1986 the redevelopment agency began buying and then condemning the run-down properties on the 7.8-acre Academy site, clearing away 18 businesses and 17 homes. Some of the aging stucco and brick buildings were vacant, others were neglected shops and thrift stores that contributed to the commercial strip’s blighted look.

When the city’s redevelopment agency undertakes such a project, it buys the land for resale to developers at a discount, encouraging new construction. Eventually, the neighborhood benefits from increased property taxes that result from higher values.

Extra tax revenue goes back to the redevelopment agency to fund other improvements in the area or recoup costs of starting the project.

Since the revitalization effort started, two major projects have risen near The Academy site--the $25-million Hewlett-Packard Co. building across the street and a 200-unit senior citizens housing complex at Magnolia Boulevard and Vineland Avenue.

New Apartments

In addition, more than 600 apartments were built in the area in 10 new complexes, and 880 apartments have been rehabilitated with financial assistance from the redevelopment agency.

It cost the redevelopment agency $10 million to buy and clear the land for The Academy project, financed mainly with loans and bonds from federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

The agency then sold 5 acres of the land to Kensley Corp. for $3.7 million. As part of the agreement, Kensley Corp. will find another developer to buy about 2 more acres for apartments.

Completion of the plan’s details in June ended eight months of frantic redesigning brought about when United Artists backed out of its agreement to operate an eight-screen theater complex within the project.

“There was a lot of panic when that fell through,” Belcher said.

The solution was to build high-density apartments at the site instead of the theaters--a proposal that disappointed some community representatives.

Essential Issue

“The essential issue, though, was that we needed to have the redevelopment. The theaters would have been nice, but we held together for the bigger view,” said Don Eitner, vice chairman of a residents committee monitoring the project. “The community still felt we could put North Hollywood on the map with this project.”

Several commercial real estate brokers who specialize in leasing office space in the San Fernando Valley said the main obstacle to success will be the poor image of the North Hollywood area along Lankershim Boulevard.

“North Hollywood is not generally known as a high-image office market,” said Bob Terrazas of Zugsmith & Associates. “Overcoming that perception is the biggest problem they will have.”