A New Garment District for L.A.? : Development: Investors seek council approval to renovate the former May Co. building and employ up to 7,000. Opponents claim the proposal would choke the downtown area with more traffic.

A major development battle over the historic but decaying former May Co. building will determine whether a new garment center springs up in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.

An investor group represented by former councilman and lobbyist Arthur K. Snyder is trying to persuade City Council members to allow 600 businesses and up to 7,000 garment workers in the 70-year-old building at the corner of Broadway and 8th Street.

The project is opposed by two of the largest property owners in the garment district, who say it would create a major manufacturing facility within three blocks of Pershing Square--an area zoned for condominiums, offices and restaurants. They also say it would choke the downtown area with additional traffic.

Playing hardball, the investors hired a consulting firm to look for safety violations at buildings owned by the most vocal opponents of their plan to convert the nine-story structure--now called the Broadway Trade Center--into a factory complex of 1 million square feet.

The consulting firm, Rodarte & Associates, found dozens of alleged infractions, which Snyder reported to the city attorney’s office in an April 18 letter that said, in part: “The lives of the persons at risk are now in your hands.”

The letter was handed to the city’s Department of Building and Safety, which dispatched a team of inspectors to some of the dozen garment district buildings owned or managed by Stanley Hirsch and Richard Gerry.

Gerry’s buildings were cited for violations ranging from illegal partitions in work areas to exit doors that swing in the wrong direction, said a building and safety official. Hirsch’s property was cited for illegal partitions, as well as improper storage facilities, the official said.

Snyder’s tactics have sent a chill through the garment district, where, say Hirsch and Gerry, many building owners have become afraid of publicly opposing the project lest their properties become the target of scrutiny.

On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to decide whether to grant the permit for the manufacturing use permit for the structure, which is on the National Register of Historic Buildings.

“I think it is going to be hard-fought in the council,” said Councilman Michael Woo. “I’ve heard from people on both sides of the issue and both have good arguments.”

Newly elected Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose district envelops much of the existing 2,300-acre garment district, favors the project because the building owners have promised to make $15 million of improvements to arrest the building’s deterioration.

“It will provide an anchor at the southern end of Broadway, which will help rehabilitate the street,” Walters said. “But the City Council will decide what happens here.”

Project opponents say Snyder’s tactics on behalf of the building owners, Belfor Shalomi and Amanollah Simantob, have diverted attention from the real issues--unfair competition for the garment district and the dispersal of garment-making plants throughout downtown.

If the owners of the Broadway Trade Center are successful, they say, the owners of other downtown vacant buildings will seek similar conditional use permits, then lure away garment district tenants with cheap rents and leases.

“It will open a floodgate that will erode the city,” said Hirsch. “The City Council is blind to what this really represents.”

In a prepared statement, Mayor Tom Bradley indicated that he sees problems with the project, saying that “there are at least 11 other garment companies that have filed conditional use requests to operate on Broadway.”

“I have directed my staff to sit down with all of the affected parties and discuss solutions to this dilemma,” he said.

Nonetheless, the project has won the support of dozens of building owners on Broadway, organizations formed to rejuvenate the city’s central business district and the Korean American Garment Industry Assn., which includes 470 contractors employing 20,000 workers.

“I think it could force other building owners in the garment district to lower their rents instead of jacking them up,” said John Cho, general manager of the garment industry association. “If for no other reason, the City Council should approve this.”

Ira Yellin, vice chairman of a group called Miracle on Broadway, said saving the Broadway Trade Center is “very, very important because the city’s historic core is in a seriously downtrodden and underdeveloped condition.”

“Here we have a developer who has put his heart and soul into bringing a distinctive building back to life,” Yellin said.

Councilman Mike Hernandez expressed reservations about a project that would bring scores of delivery trucks and 7,000 people to an area already suffering from traffic congestion and inadequate housing, schooling and child-care services for tens of thousands of mostly Latino workers.

“It would be ideal in another location,” Hernandez said. But he added that “it could work” if city officials ensure that health, safety and building regulations are closely monitored.

Standing in a bare room, Danny Partielli, executive director of the Broadway Trade Center, said: “We want to create a garment center combining cutters, sewers, warehouses, offices and showrooms--all under one roof.

“We have already spent $5 million on improvements here,” Partielli said. “We are prepared to spend another $10 million on renovations.”

Hirsch and Gerry argued that the owners cannot be trusted to keep such promises because they have violated previous grant conditions established when they bought the place five years ago.

For example, the original conditional use permit issued in 1988 allowed for 150 sewing machines on the premises. Today, there are more than 1,000 sewing machines in the building.

Snyder acknowledged that “maybe that shouldn’t have happened.” He also said that the late City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay gave the owners “verbal approval” to increase the number of sewing machines.

The council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee has recommended approval of the permit request, but the Board of Zoning Appeals has asked the council to attach a host of restrictions.

These restrictions would include that the owners provide space on the first floor for a transit police office, and buy monthly bus and train passes for everyone who works in the building, which could cost up to $250,000 a month, city officials said.

Snyder called these provisions “a poison pill.”

“Each one of these provisions could destroy the project,” Snyder said. “If that happens, the garment industry will continue to hemorrhage out of Los Angeles, the south end of Broadway will continue to disintegrate, and we will lose the largest historic building in the city and 7,000 potential jobs.”

Gail Gorden, an attorney representing Hirsch and Gerry in the dispute, disagreed. “Those conditions will assure that some of the large impacts from such a huge garment factory will be addressed,” she said.

A Building Dispute

Here is a look at the downtown and garment / industrial districts, where a controversy is brewing over the use of the old May Co. building.

Background: Five years ago, city officials OKd a conditional-use permit for garment makers to move into the 1-million-square-foot May Co. building. A group of investors wants to renew the permit and make the structure, now known as the Broadway Trade Center, a permanent home for 600 businesses and 7,000 workers-the largest; garment-making operation under one roof in the city.

Issue: This week, the City Council is expected to decide whether to grant the request for a large-scale manufacturing plant in the heart of an area zoned for condominiums, restaurants and stores.

Conflict: Building owners in the existing garment district fear the colossal enterprise will siphon off their tenants by offering cheaper leases, and create a new garment district without proper planning in an area not zoned for manufacturing.