Long Beach : Fate of Landmark Clinic to Be Discussed at Meeting

Preservationists and developers will sit down next week for what could be the last attempt to save the 60-year-old Harriman Jones clinic from demolition as time runs out for the landmark building where, some say, half of Long Beach was born.

City Council members encouraged the meeting in an effort to end a 1 1/2-year standoff over plans to turn the elegant Spanish-style building at Cherry Avenue and Broadway into a 45-unit condominium complex.

Preservationists want the entire building saved, a demand the Terry/Nikols Development Co. says is financially impossible. The developers have agreed to preserve the Cherry Avenue facade and small portions of the interior if the City Council will allow the condominiums to stand 15 feet higher than the neighborhood currently allows.

City officials have taken a hard preservation line since the building was declared a landmark last June. But that status only protects the clinic through July 4, possibly longer if a six-month extension is won.

After that it is wide open for destruction, a fate that council members--still haunted by the ghosts of the Pacific Coast Club and the Jergins Trust Building--clearly want to avoid.

“We end up with a scrape, then everybody stands next to a vacant lot and says we coulda, shoulda, woulda,” District 7 Councilman Ray Grabinski said.

Preservationist Rae LaForce encouraged the city to look for another buyer who will leave the clinic intact. But council members worried that asking too much would only yield another hole in the ground.

The closed-door session to discuss the issue is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The council plans to take up the issue again May 1.