19 of 68 Firms Question Listing by Rebuild L.A.

More than one-fourth of the companies that Rebuild L.A. has identified as being among those intending to invest heavily in Los Angeles’ inner city have no such plans, company officials told The Times.

Officials of some of the companies named by Rebuild L.A.--from consumer products giant Quaker Oats to Dow Chemical--said they are mystified as to why they are on a list of 68 companies released by Rebuild L.A. at its board meeting late last month.

At that time, Co-Chairman Peter V. Ueberroth said the 68 companies and a number of nonprofit groups were among 500 organizations with which Rebuild L.A. was engaged in discussions about investing $1 billion “to encourage economic development and job creation in neglected areas” of Los Angeles.

Several of the firms are developing major programs to create jobs or invest in the inner city. Others had launched projects before Rebuild L.A.’s announcement. But 19 of the 68 companies told The Times that they have no current plans for inner-city investment.

Among them are some of the biggest companies on Rebuild L.A.’s list: Apple Computer, Bechtel, Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Co., Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Pacific Gas & Electric, Ralphs, Ryder System and Unocal.

In an interview, Ueberroth maintained that all the companies on the list had been in discussions with Rebuild L.A., but he declined to detail their intentions or anything about their contact with the organization.

The list--presented to the civic renewal group’s 80-member board and distributed to the media--said that all the companies listed were “in the process of determining their first commitments . . .” to Rebuild L.A.

The organization, created by Mayor Tom Bradley after the spring riots, says its mission is to coordinate efforts to revitalize neglected areas of Los Angeles by encouraging private investment, rather than through direct government aid.

Ueberroth said that discussing details of companies’ plans would be “inappropriate and counterproductive” and might “jeopardize” some of the pending deals.

“I’m satisfied completely with our statement where we say that these companies are in the process of determining their first commitments to RLA. They have no obligation to have any commitment and, in fact, in the end they may not have a commitment. But it is also my opinion that most of them will,” Ueberroth said.

Ueberroth said he believed that the people The Times interviewed were simply unaware of the negotiations or for business reasons would not reveal their plans.

“There are some that are competitively looking at real estate and sites, and active disclosure of plans would be not smart for these companies,” Ueberroth said. “In business, the last thing you want to do is say you want to do something and not do it.”

After Ueberroth maintained that the list of 68 companies was valid, The Times re-interviewed officials from many of these firms--and, in some cases, representatives of other divisions of those companies--and they still said they had no investment plans.

Of the 68 companies, seven said that they had projects in the works. Another 10 appeared to be in serious discussions with Rebuild L.A. and 26 were in preliminary discussions. Two companies said they did not know whether they had any plans and one declined comment.

Three companies confirmed that they were working on projects but said that Rebuild L.A. was not involved in those plans; officials at the firms said they were surprised to be included on Rebuild L.A.’s list.

When asked about any involvement with Rebuild L.A., for example, one official of giant retailer Wal-Mart checked with Chairman S. Robson Walton and Chief Executive David D. Glass and reported that neither had been working with Rebuild L.A. to build in the inner-city of Los Angeles. Such a move would be the firm’s first foray into the heart of a major urban area.

Sources in city government told The Times that the Bentonville, Ark.-based firm has been eyeing at least one location in South-Central Los Angeles--the 23-acre Santa Barbara Plaza shopping center. However, these sources said the negotiations between Wal-Mart and the city are stalled. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jane Arend declined to confirm or deny that Wal-Mart is looking there.

Ueberroth said in an interview this week that he was not surprised that companies were saying they had no plans. “It’s no small decision for some companies to invest in an area where they have carefully avoided any involvement for 40 years,” he said.

At Rebuild L.A.’s Oct. 28 board meeting, Ueberroth said that the plans of the 500 companies were on top of the “several hundreds of millions of dollars” already poured into post-riot business ventures and job training programs.

Ralphs Grocery Co., for example, already had rebuilt two stores damaged during the riots and remodeled 15 others in the inner city. But though it was listed by Rebuild L.A. as among those planning long-term projects, the Compton-based company has no further plans for substantive investment, Chairman Byron Allumbaugh said.

“Peter Ueberroth is a personal friend of mine,” he said. “I play golf with him all the time. He knows that we’re on board and we’ll do what we can. But he understands that we’ve made a heavy part of our commitment already.”

In the case of Bechtel, a senior executive had a “brief conversation” with Ueberroth shortly after the riots and expressed interest in pitching in, said Michael Kidder, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based engineering and construction firm. However, the company had no further contact with Rebuild L.A. until two weeks ago, after RLA put out its list containing Bechtel’s name, he said.

“I would put us in the no-plans-at-this-time category,” Kidder said.

Ueberroth has declined to explain how Rebuild L.A. arrived at the $1 billion figure for planned new investment, though he termed it a “conservative” estimate.

Other companies said they did not know why they appeared on Rebuild L.A.’s list.

Dow Chemical, which immediately after the riots donated 1,830 cases of Ziploc bags and other Dow-brand products to a group working with the homeless, could find no evidence of any other plans despite an extensive check that included a conversation with Dow Chairman Paul Orrefice, said spokeswoman Catherine Maxey at Dow’s Midland, Mich., corporate headquarters.

“He is a friend of Peter Ueberroth,” she said. “I asked him whether he had made a commitment to support the Rebuild L.A. project. The gist of it is that Peter never even brought the topic up. He’s not sure where this came about. We were never officially asked. Dow was not asked to contribute to Rebuild L.A.”

One corporate official to whom Rebuild L.A. referred a Times reporter expressed surprise that his company was named. “Loral should not be on the list,” said Al Dawson, the small business liaison officer for defense contractor Loral Corp.’s Newport Beach office.

Dawson said that he had been working with Rebuild L.A. as an individual but said the company has no investment plans.

To be sure, several companies are developing major projects that would bring jobs and investment to the inner city--the objectives that are Rebuild L.A.’s central mission and most community activists’ top priority:

* Toyota last week announced plans to invest about $3 million in an automotive repair training program in partnership with the Los Angeles Urban League and Rebuild L.A.

* Chevron is close to unveiling a joint venture with a community group to set up a job training facility. The San Francisco-based company also is rebuilding its 21 gas stations that were destroyed or damaged during the riots.

Rebuild L.A. gets “a lot of flak for not moving fast enough, but they’ve been extraordinarily helpful to us,” said Wally Fassler, Chevron regional vice president.

* McCormack Barron & Associates, a low-cost housing specialist, is working on three $15-million to $20-million mixed-use projects in the South-Central and Pico-Union districts that would include housing, commercial businesses and social services, said McCormack Vice President Tony Salazar, a member of the Rebuild L.A. board.

Several other companies said they were planning projects but not in conjunction with Rebuild L.A.

Copeland Beverage, which is owned by minorities, had approached Rebuild L.A. for help in setting up a bottling plant in South Gate that would employ residents from the nearby depressed communities, said executive vice president Rudy Lopez. But the company got none of the help it was promised, including introductions to key executives of firms with which it hoped to do business, Lopez said.

“We’re not very happy with what Rebuild L.A. has done,” he said, adding that Copeland plans to break ground on the project within the next month.

Also, two companies are discussing substantive projects with Rebuild L.A., but they apparently do not involve job creation or long-term investment.

British Airways, together with nonprofit groups, soon will announce plans to take inner-city youngsters on a trip to Britain. The Los Angeles Lakers hope to raise at least $250,000 for rebuilding efforts by selling commemorative items marking the Forum’s 25th anniversary in December.

No details of the 68 companies’ plans were aired at last month’s Rebuild L.A. board meeting. The Times contacted all the companies in an attempt to determine what projects were in the pipeline.

Several said they had made donations to community groups after the riots but had no further plans for investments or job-creating programs. They include Miami-based Ryder System Inc., which loaned trucks to law enforcement agencies during the riots, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which closed two stores because of riot damage and later contributed to the American Red Cross.

Like Chevron, several companies on Rebuild L.A.’s list have rebuilt outlets that were destroyed or damaged during the riots. While some of them--Arco, Mobil, Pep Boys and Southland Corp.--are talking to Rebuild L.A., others have had little or no contact with the group, company officials said.

For example, the Price Co. repaired its lightly damaged Price Club store in Inglewood but has no projects in the offing, President Mitch Lynn said. The director of the firm’s charitable foundation, Ted Hurwitz, said he too was puzzled about Price Co.’s inclusion on the list.

Sears Roebuck & Co. spokesman Guy Eberhart said the Chicago-based retailer “spent a lot of money” to reopen its Hollywood store, which was “totally destroyed” in the rioting. But, Sears has no plans for any inner-city projects in Los Angeles, Eberhart said.

Rebuild L.A. officials repeatedly have said that they are not interested in charity projects or one-shot deals but instead aim to stimulate long-term investment that encourages economic development and job creation.

Yet a number of companies on the list that have made significant contributions to Rebuild L.A. or other nonprofit organizations said they have no plans to bring jobs or investment to needy areas.

For example, Apple Computer has supplied computer equipment worth more than $100,000 to community organizations.

The Westin Bonaventure hotel has donated rooms, hosted meetings and contributed to a scholarship fund, said Managing Director James Simkins. Because the hotel is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, “our work with Rebuild L.A. has been more in kind than in cash,” he said.

Said Simkins: “We said from the very beginning that we want to be part of this but we cannot guarantee that we’re going to open another hotel and we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to create any jobs.”

Times staff writers Leslie Helm in Tokyo and John Mitchell in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

The Rebuild L.A. Scoreboard

On Oct. 28, Rebuild L.A. released a list of 68 companies with which it was in “ongoing discussions” about “economic development and job creation in neglected areas” of Los Angeles. Rebuild L.A. said the firms were representative of more than 500 companies with plans to invest over $1 billion in the inner city over the next few years.

A detailed survey by The Times found that many have had little or no contact with Rebuild L.A. A number had made post-riot investments or announced plans for inner-city projects prior to Oct. 28, including plans to rebuild riot-damaged outlets; Rebuild L.A. said the $1 billion in projects was in addition to those previously announced.

Some projects do not create jobs. And of the 68 companies, 20 say they have no current plans to invest in the inner city. Here is a breakdown of the companies’ dealings with Rebuild L.A.

Earlier Rebuilding Short- Post-Riot Damaged Term Investment Outlet Project PROJECTS IN THE WORKS Avery Dennison + British Airways + Chevron + Los Angeles Lakers + McCormack Barron Southland + Toyota IN SERIOUS DISCUSSIONS WITH REBUILD L.A. Design & Imaging Technologies First Interstate + Mattel + Mod Pod/Berkus Group Payless Shoesource + Pep Boys + Rally’s Hamburgers Rockwell Intl. Showbiz Pizza Time Wal-Mart IN PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS WITH REBUILD L.A. Arco + + AT&T; + Benjamin Moore California Angels Coca-Cola Costco Wholesale Devore Industries El Pollo Loco EnviroCom Group General Electric Golden Oaks Furniture Great Western Lockheed Mobil + + Modular Housing Manufacturing Pacific Telesis + Reebok Foundation + RJR Nabisco Sara Lee Sports Illustrated Time/Warner Walt Disney + Waste Management + Western Union Wherehouse + Xerox + PROJECTS IN THE WORKS BUT NOT WITH REBUILD L.A. Copeland Beverage L.A. Taxi + Smith’s Food & Drug NO CURRENT PLANS FOR JOB OR INVESTMENT PROJECTS American Honda + Apple Computer + Bechtel Blue Cross of Cal.* + W. Atlee Burpee Co. + Dow Chemical + Ford Motor + Goodyear + Loral Northern Telecom + Occidental Petroleum Pacific Gas & Electric Price Co. + + Quaker Oats Ralphs + + Ryder System Inc. + Sears + Unocal + Westin Bonaventure +

Executives on Rebuild Staff/Bd. PROJECTS IN THE WORKS Avery Dennison British Airways Chevron + Los Angeles Lakers McCormack Barron + Southland Toyota IN SERIOUS DISCUSSIONS WITH REBUILD L.A. Design & Imaging Technologies First Interstate Mattel Mod Pod/Berkus Group Payless Shoesource Pep Boys Rally’s Hamburgers Rockwell Intl. Showbiz Pizza Time Wal-Mart IN PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS WITH REBUILD L.A. Arco + AT&T; + Benjamin Moore California Angels Coca-Cola Costco Wholesale Devore Industries El Pollo Loco EnviroCom Group General Electric Golden Oaks Furniture Great Western Lockheed Mobil Modular Housing Manufacturing Pacific Telesis Reebok Foundation RJR Nabisco Sara Lee Sports Illustrated Time/Warner + Walt Disney Waste Management Western Union Wherehouse Xerox PROJECTS IN THE WORKS BUT NOT WITH REBUILD L.A. Copeland Beverage L.A. Taxi Smith’s Food & Drug NO CURRENT PLANS FOR JOB OR INVESTMENT PROJECTS American Honda Apple Computer Bechtel Blue Cross of Cal.* W. Atlee Burpee Co. Dow Chemical Ford Motor Goodyear Loral Northern Telecom Occidental Petroleum + Pacific Gas & Electric Price Co. Quaker Oats Ralphs Ryder System Inc. Sears Unocal Westin Bonaventure

* Inaccurately listed by Rebuild L.A. as Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Blue Shield of California also has no plans for inner-city projects.

NOTE: Officials at two companies said they were not sure if their firms had any involvement with Rebuild L.A. or any plans for an inner-city project. They are Procter & Gamble and Dole Food Co. Officials at The Gap declined to comment.