Port Unveils Its Plans for Long-Delayed Office Tower

Six years after it first proposed to build an office tower in downtown San Pedro, the Port of Los Angeles has unveiled ambitious plans for a heavily landscaped, two-block complex that will encompass its current headquarters, a new 11-story office building and a separate visitor center.

The complex, which will force the abandonment of a portion of Palos Verdes Street, will be the last major project in San Pedro’s downtown redevelopment district. The 200,000-square-foot office building, which will be occupied jointly by port employees and tenants, will be about the same size as the Sheraton Hotel under construction a few blocks away.

Harbor officials, however, concede that the complex will not be completed until at least the mid- 1990s--almost a decade later than the original completion date.

The plans, which are preliminary, were made public for the first time Wednesday, at the biennial meeting held by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency Board of Commissioners to review progress in the 20-year-old Beacon Street Redevelopment Area.

Also Wednesday, the commissioners endorsed another issue of interest to the San Pedro business community, agreeing to set aside $1.5 million in CRA money to buy land for a parking lot in San Pedro’s commercial core. The expenditure, which is authorized in the agency’s 1990 budget, must be approved by the City Council.

The parking-lot vote was greeted with enthusiasm by the San Pedro business leaders who packed the meeting, and by Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who proposed the move as a way to ease a parking crunch in downtown San Pedro.

Flores and the business leaders were less enamored of the port’s proposal. Although they approved of the concept, they complained--as they have repeatedly in the past--that the project is long overdue.

“I’m disappointed that the port has taken six very long years to reach the stage where they are today,” Flores told the commissioners. She suggested that if port officials do not adhere to a strict timetable for construction, the CRA assess financial penalties against the Harbor Department, as it would with a private developer.

Others, including the president of the San Pedro Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, echoed Flores’ demand.

“Please get tough. Stop this land-banking,” said businessman Warren Gunter. “I ask the commission: Grow some teeth, grab the Harbor Department by the neck and shake some quicker and faster results from your sister.”

That remark referred to a comment by CRA Chairman James Wood, who two years ago ruled out fining the port, saying it is a “sister city agency and . . . should be treated as a member of the city family.”

The port’s checkered involvement with the CRA began Dec. 23, 1983, when the Harbor Department paid $4.3 million for 2.6 acres of property in the Beacon Street Redevelopment Area, an urban renewal effort launched by the CRA in 1969. The property, on Harbor Boulevard, adjoins a parcel the port already owned.

Numerous Delays

The agreement between the CRA and the port called for the Harbor Department to select a developer and submit basic plans for the parcel by Aug. 7, 1984, then adhere to a development schedule. In March, 1987--after numerous delays and extensions granted by the CRA--the port selected HCT Inc. of Hollywood as the developer.

Negotiations with HCT dragged on until August, 1988, when the Harbor Department ditched the Hollywood firm and declared that it would put up the office building on its own. Port officials said then that they believed they could complete the office building by 1992.

That won’t be possible. The plans unveiled Wednesday, which were drafted by Kurt Meyer Partners, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm, are far more complex than those port officials envisioned last year. They now estimate that it will take at least until the mid-1990s to finish the project.

“I can understand and appreciate the frustration,” said Harbor Department Deputy Director Dwayne Lee at Wednesday’s meeting, saying port officials will move as quickly as possible to implement their development plans.

But after the meeting, other port officials estimated that it could take as long as two years simply to obtain permission from the city to vacate the portion of Palos Verdes Street that will be incorporated into the project. And port officials said their environmental impact report for the project must now be revised to match the new plans.

Wait to Hire Architect

These plans must be approved by the Board of Harbor Commissioners before the port can hire an architect to flesh them out in detail. Port officials said Wednesday that they are still uncertain whether CRA commissioners must also approve the plans, although CRA approval will be required once more specific plans are drafted.

In general, the project calls for the development to stretch from Harbor Boulevard, between 3rd and 5th streets, across Palos Verdes Street to the port’s current headquarters, which front that street on the west.

Visitors will enter the complex along what is now Palos Verdes Street, which will be converted into a driveway and visitors center. The 6,000-square-foot visitors center will house conference space and an office for a receptionist. Visitors will reach it from either an ornamental staircase or an elevator from a parking garage that will run underneath the length of the complex.

The port’s current five-story office building and its adjacent garden will form the western end of the complex. The existing port building will be reconfigured slightly so that its main entrance will be on the second floor, at the same level as the visitor center. In addition, the building will be expanded to include a day-care center for 75 children.

Retail Space

The new office tower will occupy the southeastern corner of the complex. Port tenants are expected to occupy 140,000 square feet of the tower, and port offices will take up the remaining 60,000 square feet. In addition, the tower will include 12,000 square feet of retail space along 5th Street.

The three buildings will be connected with terraces and gardens, and will be bounded on the north side by what the consulting firm calls a “linear park with pedestrian path.”

The path is intended to help blend the complex with the residential neighborhood--the Rancho San Pedro housing project--to the north, whereas the retail space on 5th Street is intended to blend the project with the commercial district to the south.