Port OKs Scaled-Down Plan for Central San Pedro Offices

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has agreed to spend up to $25 million for a new office building, parking garage and other facilities on port-owned land in downtown San Pedro that has been targeted for development since 1983.

With the 4-0 decision, the commission finally abandoned a proposed $57-million office and retail complex that had been encouraged by San Pedro’s business community but viewed warily by some as too ambitious.

The latest plan, subject to future action, calls for building a minimum 100,000-square-foot office building as an annex to the Harbor Department’s headquarters at 425 S. Palos Verdes St. In addition, the plan includes refurbishing the port’s headquarters, providing enough parking for 740 administrative employees, and finishing the entire project by June, 1994.

Beyond that, commissioners left open their options on Wednesday for the project’s final size, design and scope, mindful of the port’s long and troubled history in developing anything on the site now occupied by a parking lot and a vacant warehouse. Those options could include a second, larger office building along Harbor Boulevard.

Since buying the two parcels seven years ago, the port has been pressured by the community and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency to settle on a project for the last two undeveloped sites in San Pedro’s Beacon Street redevelopment area.

But over the years, the port failed to go ahead with a variety of plans, prompting criticism by the CRA and complaints in the community that the department was purposely “land banking” the property in lieu of development.