Santa Monica Promenade Wins Award : Revitalization: A developer-sponsored organization honors the public-private venture for its innovative ‘urban common’ design.

The partnership between government and business that transformed a dying Santa Monica shopping district into the thriving Third Street Promenade was honored Wednesday by the Westside Urban Forum, a developer-sponsored group.

At a luncheon meeting in Marina del Rey, the group presented Santa Monica officials with its Westside Prize for innovative development and land-use practices that enhance the quality of life in the area.

The organization’s president, James Watt McCormick, said the three-block-long pedestrian promenade provides an “urban common” where the public can gather in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.

“We think it is just great,” McCormick said. “This city is starved for urban spaces--the urban common.”

In presenting the award, McCormick hailed the revitalization project by the nonprofit Bayside District Corp. as “a significant and successful public/private venture” that reversed past planning mistakes.

McCormick, a West Los Angeles developer, said the once-vital section of 3rd Street from Broadway to Wilshire Boulevard was “absolutely killed” by the opening of the huge Santa Monica Place mall in 1980.

Determined to reinvigorate the street, Santa Monica later issued $13 million in bonds to make street improvements, provide additional parking and pay off the debt from earlier work. The bonds will be repaid through special property tax assessments on buildings in the area.

The city then began building plazas and fountains and installing lighting, landscaping, benches and topiary dinosaurs, while encouraging $100 million in private development.

In little more than a year since its official opening, the promenade has become an entertainment magnet with more than 20 movie screens, bars, restaurants, street vendors and shops in an outdoor setting where walking--not driving--is prized.

McCormick did not dispute the fact that the promenade is surrounded by garages containing thousands of parking spaces. But he praised the project nonetheless, saying Los Angeles needs places where people of all ages and economic groups can gather.

The Westside Urban Forum’s board of directors, which is composed of developers, consultants, civic leaders and community activists, commended two other projects for excellence and innovation.

The group praised the efforts of Maguire Thomas Partners and its designers to incorporate a wide range of housing for different income groups into plans for the massive Playa Vista project between Marina del Rey and the Westchester Bluffs.

And the organization cited the Two Rodeo Drive development in Beverly Hills as a superior example of a privately developed commercial project.