Project in Hawthorne Clouded by Proposed Move of Rail Station

Hawthorne officials have agreed to negotiate with a development firm that wants to build a $200-million “urban village” in a city redevelopment area.

County transportation officials have put a snag in the proposal, however, by recommending a new site for a light-rail station that originally was going to be in the middle of the project.

The 20-acre redevelopment site is important to the city because it could be a source of substantial revenues. An earlier, ill-fated project proposed for the site would have generated an estimated $800,000 a year for Hawthorne, officials said.

The new development proposal, submitted by Cloverleaf Group Inc. of Century City, calls for an “urban village” where people could live, work and play, said company Vice President Rex Swanson.

The plan calls for three hotels with a total of 600 rooms, 150,000 square feet of offices, a 150,000-square-foot designer-clothing retail center, a health club, an 8-theater movie complex and 500 condominiums. Like the earlier project, the Cloverleaf development would cost more than $200 million, Swanson said.

In their dual role as members of the Hawthorne Community Redevelopment Agency, council members Charles Bookhammer, David M. York and Ginny M. Lambert approved a 180-day agreement Tuesday, giving Cloverleaf the exclusive right to negotiate with the city for development of the 20-acre site. The site, representing one of Hawthorne’s major opportunities for redevelopment, is bounded by Rosecrans Avenue, the San Diego Freeway, 147th Street and Isis Avenue.

Swanson urged the council Tuesday to reject a Los Angeles County Transportation Commission plan to relocate the light-rail station. He said his company “accepted the station location as a given” when it drafted plans for the site.

A 19.5-mile light-rail line from Norwalk to El Segundo is being built as part of the Century Freeway construction. The light-rail route turns south at Aviation Boulevard in El Segundo, and under the original plan it would end about halfway between Rosecrans Avenue and Compton Boulevard, in the middle of the redevelopment site.

That location originally was chosen to take advantage of ridership expected from users of a major hotel and office project proposed by Watt Investment Properties. But in August, Watt officials announced they were unable to obtain financing because of a glut of office space in the South Bay.

Moved Station

With the demise of the Watt project, the transportation commission staff proposed moving the station a half-mile south to Compton Boulevard, which would provide access for the work force at TRW and neighboring businesses in Redondo Beach, commission spokeswoman Mary Lou Echternach told the council.

The rail station would be placed above Compton Boulevard, providing good visibility for the system and easing crime concerns for riders, she said.

Echternach said the new location has been endorsed by the city of Redondo Beach and TRW. The plan also has the support of the El Segundo Employers Assn., a representative said Tuesday.

City Manager R. Kenneth Jue said Hawthorne objects to the relocation because of its potential effect on Cloverleaf’s proposal.

In an interview Wednesday, Swanson said he hopes that the commission staff will change its recommendation once it sees the company’s extensive plans.

Hope for Change

“It is hard for us to assess the damage it would cause” if the station were moved, he said. “But we believe that once we get together with the commission staff and they see what we plan on building, they won’t have a problem.”

The commission may not have realized the size of the project and the demand for public transit it would generate, he said.

While the Watt project was to include 1 million square feet of offices, the Cloverleaf plan calls for only 150,000 square feet. The Cloverleaf plan calls for considerably more retail (150,000 square feet) than Watt’s, and it includes condominiums. The Watt project contained no residential development. Both proposals included hotels.

Since it was founded in 1977, Cloverleaf has been responsible for nearly $2 billion worth of development, including 7,000 apartment units in 14 states, two hotels now being built in the Westside, a design center and a retail center in Marina del Rey and two shopping centers in the Wilshire District, Swanson said.

‘Good-Neighbor Policy’

Echternach said the commission staff will meet with the developer and the city to discuss the station location. She said the commission has a “good-neighbor policy” and likes to obtain the agreement of affected communities when adopting public transit plans. But she added that the commission has the full authority to determine the light-rail route, “with or without the approval of the local jurisdictions.”

Bookhammer, York and Lambert did not comment on the station relocation plan Tuesday night.