State Dedicates Reagan Office Building : Development: Former President, Deukmejian at ceremony. Facility will house 2,500 employees, beginning in December. It is expected to help rejuvenate Spring Street.

Amid predictions that thousands of workers and visitors will be lured back to what was once the thriving heart of downtown Los Angeles, a new state office building named in honor of Ronald Reagan was officially dedicated Friday as the former President and ex-governor looked on.

Gov. George Deukmejian introduced Reagan to a crowd of about 500 people who gathered in the building’s four-story atrium for the ceremony, during which Reagan was handed an oversized key to the twin-towered structure.

“I am pleased beyond description to have my name associated with this building,” said the 79-year-old Reagan, who was accompanied by his wife, Nancy. “I wish all who enter here good luck.”

Deukmejian and other speakers noted that the 850,000-square-foot structure--state government’s largest office building--was constructed on time and within its $106-million budget.

“You can find miracles in places other than the Bible, I suppose,” Deukmejian quipped.

Some who attended the ceremony said they were impressed with the building’s sleek, modern architecture, which consists of 17- and 14-story towers connected by the atrium. Works of California artists are featured in the building, including a large mural featuring flying cups and saucers.

Mary Decker of Monrovia thought that mural did not blend with the former President’s character.

“I thought it would be more conservative,” chuckled Decker, a Democrat who attended the ceremony because her son was playing in an Air National Guard band.

A half-dozen anti-Reagan protesters gathered outside the building before the ceremony carrying “Contra-diction” placards--an apparent reference to the Reagan Administration’s Iran-Contra scandal.

The new Spring Street building is two blocks south of City Hall in an area that was once a trendy shopping and theater district, dubbed “The Wall Street of The West.” But the district, on the fringe of Skid Row, deteriorated over the last 20 years as banks and financial institutions moved west to new towers along Flower and Figueroa streets.

In recent years, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has worked to rejuvenate Spring Street. It prodded development of the state office building by advancing $20 million to acquire the three-acre site, complete construction drawings and cover legal expenses.

The CRA also spent $50 million to spur the development of new buildings in the area, renovate existing ones and fund affordable housing and crime prevention programs.

At least 2,500 state employees now working in offices around the Los Angeles area will be relocated to the new building beginning in December, state officials said. Many of those workers will come from Wilshire-area offices the state leases. The state’s Department of Justice will be one of the building’s largest tenants.

The state’s agreement with the CRA calls for the state to assume ownership of the building in 25 years, when the revenue bonds that were issued to finance the structure are retired, according to Anne Garbeff, a spokeswoman with the state’s Department of General Services.

CRA Chairman Jim Wood predicted that the building would provide merchants and property owners with an “economic shot in the arm” by bringing thousands of people into the area to work, eat and shop. The building also should attract tenants that do business with the state back into existing office buildings that are either vacant or have low occupancy rates, he said.

“I think it is a tremendous asset for that area,” Wood said. “Nothing is going to improve North Broadway, Spring and Main like this building.”

George Kalebdjian, manager of a clothing store less than a block away, agreed the state building would help the area. But he said merchants will be at a disadvantage until the city does something to rid the area of street people who frighten away customers.

“I would not have my wife come down here,” he said.