What? Yet Another Showplace? : Long Beach Is Building One; Orange County and San Diego Want One. And L.A.’s Looking to Get Back In. Does Southland Need So Many World Trade Centers?
When it comes to Southern California showpieces, the building at Third and Figueroa streets has always been a big disappointment. Nestled in the tall shadows of the Security Pacific Building, Bunker Towers and the Bonaventure Hotel, the squat, low-slung building is actually a parking lot with offices on top.
But it’s known as the World Trade Center--which it is and isn’t.
The building bears the name World Trade Center , but it was officially stripped of its affiliation with the global World Trade Centers Assn. in 1983. Haseko (California) Inc., the new Tokyo-based owner of the building, is applying this week to be reinstated as an official World Trade Center.
The move is expected to touch off a wave of controversy, coming as it does just as the first tenants move into the newly completed first phase of the $550-million Greater Los Angeles World Trade Center in Long Beach.
And other world trade facilities are in the works in Southern California. The World Trade Center of Orange County is scouting for a site in Santa Ana to build its facility. Pomona recently postponed plans to construct a $90-million Inland Pacific World Trade Center because of problems. Oxnard has a World Trade Center, too--but no building. San Diego also has been studying the idea of having such a facility.
‘Jumping on Bandwagon’
No one disputes Southern California’s emergence as the premier international trade center in the West, but does the area need so many World Trade Centers?
Proponents argue that the geographic spread of the Southland necessitates different locations to foster trade-related activities, programs and business leads.
Skeptics believe that the World Trade Center concept is being abused for the sake of real estate development. “Over the last three years, trade centers have popped up from Pomona to La Verne. It is mostly the real estate development community jumping on the international bandwagon,” observed Richard King, former president of downtown World Trade Center.
“I think there will be a shaking out, a shaking down. I think you can justify regionally one for the greater L.A. area, justify one for Orange County and one for San Diego. Beyond that I think it is fairly unrealistic.”
World Trade Centers officially sanctioned by the New York-based World Trade Centers Assn. qualify for membership in two ways: by establishing a facility to create a shopping center for a variety of public and private organizations involved in trade or by creating affiliates to use the services and programs offered by the association.
Not all members have been successful. Dallas, like Los Angeles, has buildings named World Trade Centers--a registered and protected name of the association--but they are no longer official members. A San Francisco building with the same name has absolutely nothing to do with the association.
But with today’s global economy, association membership is rising. In 1987, the association accepted a record 28 new members. So far this year, it has accepted 13 more. Membership is up to 167 members in 57 countries. There are 70 operating trade centers, 19 more under construction and 52 in planning and design stages, according to Guy Tozzoli, president of the World Trade Centers Assn. Nearly a third of the members are in the United States.
Cooperation Noted
“Southern California is so active internationally export-wise, I think Orange County has a separate identity so we wouldn’t be part of Long Beach,” explained Susan T. Lentz, executive director of World Trade Center Assn. of Orange County in Santa Ana. “We’re sisters. We have 800 members representing 500 companies that are all part of world trade. So we feel that Orange County is coming of age and has a separate identity from L.A. and can support a trade center.”
Cooperation Noted
Robert Rivinius, executive director of Greater Los Angeles World Trade Center in Long Beach, is also cooperative. “In the distinctly different economic sections of Ventura and Orange counties, we’ve been able to cooperate and been involved in the same programs” as co-sponsors.
But he is less sure of Haseko’s move for reinstatement. Rivinius’ group was created in part to fill the void created when the downtown facility ceased to be an official center. “Our association has been established to serve regional needs,” he explained.
About 55% of the 125 members of the Greater Los Angeles World Trade Center come from outside the Long Beach area--from downtown, the airport area, valley and even Orange County, according to Rivinius. “Our membership indicates we are appealing to the region.”
Rivinius declined to comment on the reinstatement campaign, but he is concerned. “When it comes to Los Angeles, we’re both in L.A. County. We’re talking about the same marketplace. We’re still taking a look at it. This is all very new. This association moved in to fill that void. Now we understand they (Haseko) are trying to get that membership back. Our board is looking at it but has not formulated a response yet.”
James Garrigus, vice president at Haseko, thinks otherwise: “We took a year and did our research. There is a need (for a downtown center) but not for as big a facility as in Long Beach. We don’t compete for the same people.”
Others are less sure. King, for example, said: “I believe that if there is going to be some rejuvenation, and I question that then it has to find a niche that is complementary and not competitive to Long Beach. It would be very difficult economically and realistically to justify a downtown World Trade Center that would have same general function as Long Beach. It would have to have a special niche, and that niche would have to be defined.”
Tozzoli at the World Trade Centers Assn. in New York said he has not received Haseko’s application yet. He said members will be asked to comment as soon as he receives the application, which will be considered at the association’s regular board meeting scheduled in mid-November in Bombay, India. He added that members have been reinstated in the past.
