New Star on the Boulevard : Redevelopment: Galaxy complex of theaters, shops and restaurants is set to open in Hollywood. It is seen as a major step in revitalizing a famed thoroughfare.
At long last, those rooting for an economic rebirth of Hollywood have something to cheer about.
The first phase of a new commercial complex is set to open in Hollywood today that combines Tinseltown-style glitz with an array of retail shops, eateries and movie screens.
The $48-million Hollywood Galaxy complex is the first major step, city officials say, in their efforts to transform Hollywood Boulevard from a timeworn stretch of tacky shops and transients into a gleaming thoroughfare that will attract tourists and locals alike.
For years, there was no commercial development in the tattered movie capital, and some mega-projects hailed as the saviors of Hollywood died, the victims of bureaucratic wrangling, citizen opposition and recessionary ills. All the while, city officials were trying desperately to jump-start their $922-million effort to revitalize Hollywood’s urban core.
Once completed, the 150,000-square-foot Galaxy will include an outdoor food court, six movie screens, retail shops and restaurants, and four levels of underground parking.
The opening of the General Cinema sixplex marks the first major commercial development project to be completed in Hollywood in recent memory, and certainly since the city approved the redevelopment effort in mid-1986. But it follows other positive developments. Among them: Disney’s $6-million restoration of the El Capitan Theatre, the settlement of a lawsuit that for years tied up millions of redevelopment dollars and this week’s opening of the Hollywood Guinness World of Records Museum.
“I consider this to be part of the turnaround for Hollywood redevelopment,” said City Councilman Michael Woo, who represents Hollywood. “It shows it is possible to complete a project.”
But the complex’s opening has put into sharp focus questions that for years have been raised about the role of redevelopment in Hollywood.
Critics say efforts by the city and the Community Redevelopment Agency to revitalize Hollywood have focused too much on major developments with public subsidies--efforts that have been met by a series of failures, setbacks and delays.
In recent months, developers pulled the plug on one $400-million mixed-use “urban village” known as the Hollywood Plaza.
Another project of the same magnitude, also touted as a cornerstone of the renewal effort, is the Hollywood Promenade. As proposed, it will wrap around Mann’s Chinese Theatre, just to the east of the Galaxy project, which stands at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Sycamore Avenue.
But that project has run into a buzz-saw of opposition from City Council members, after the CRA approved giving the developer as much as $48 million in subsidies. Negotiations are still under way, but rumors abound that the developer also will pull the plug without major subsidies from the city.
“The things that have worked--the Galaxy, the El Capitan, the Guinness--have done so because they were based on the existing realities of Hollywood,” said Robert Nudelman, head of a Hollywood citizens watchdog group. “When the CRA gets involved, it’s pie in the sky. They try to maximize projects, and force them to the point where they are no longer realistic.”
What makes the Galaxy project a success, its developers say, is that it was built without any subsidies. The developer, Kornwasser & Friedman Shopping Center Properties, asked for them but the request was rejected.
So how did the Galaxy project manage to become a reality in Hollywood?
Some say the Galaxy succeeded because without public subsidies, the developers were forced to keep it to a manageable size.
Some planners say Hollywood suffers from an unfortunate paradox: The area’s crime, blight and dearth of parking require that commercial rebirth begin in small steps. But at the same time, the area desperately needs a mammoth commercial project to pull in reluctant merchants as well as tourists and shoppers.
“Hollywood needs a regional shopping center, and I think that will be financeable two years from now, where it might not be today” because of the recession, said USC professor Richard Peiser, an expert in urban planning. In the meantime, the Galaxy “is exactly the kind of smaller, incremental project that will help the process along.”
Barton Myers, an architect and planner who lives and works in Hollywood, called the Galaxy project “an important psychological breakthrough,” one that is especially needed now that one cornerstone of the redevelopment effort has died and the other is in jeopardy.
At times, the Galaxy project seemed doomed too.
Over the past six years, it has weathered relentless community concerns and survived obstacles from city agencies that were often pushing it in opposite directions at the same time. It has outlived threats to its financing and ability to attract commercial tenants, and efforts by Metro Rail officials to build a subway under the site.
In the end, the developers were forced to return to the drawing board three times, to scale down the project and change its architecture. Those changes forced delays of more than two years and $8 million in cost overruns.
“They’ve faced some rough times, even up to the last few weeks,” conceded Woo. “But it all got worked out.”
Partners Joseph Kornwasser and Jerry Friedman had a particular reason for being so steadfast in finishing the project: They both grew up in or near Hollywood.
“We and the El Capitan don’t want to be the only ones here,” said Kornwasser. “We want to show others it is worthwhile to be here.”
