Koreatown : Council Panel OKs Pacific Trade Center

The proposed Pacific Trade Center has cleared another hurdle as a City Council committee joined the Planning Commission in recommending approval of the construction plans for the 25-story hotel, office and commercial project.

The center, planned for the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Western Avenue where a supermarket now stands, still needs the approval of the full City Council, which will consider the matter March 9.

The $115-million, 587,000-square-foot project would include a 230-room hotel, offices, stores and a youth center and generate 1,400 jobs and $3 million in tax revenues for the city, said King R. Woods, a consultant for the South Korean and American development partners.

But some residents and local business people who testified at the Planning and Land Use Management Committee hearing said they fear the project could further stunt the community’s weak economy.

John Kang, representing the Koreatown Hotel Assn., said vacancy rates in the area’s hotels are about 50%. A new hotel and office building “might create some movement between buildings but it won’t create more guests or tenants,” he said.

Such a large project might also dislocate small businesses, create “unnecessary” competition and add more traffic at an already-clogged intersection, said Howard Ree of the Koreatown Committee for Planned Growth.

Michael Cornwell of the Wilshire Homeowners’ Alliance said the project is too large, noting that city planners had recommended that it be scaled back. “This project is going to seriously siphon off business from an already struggling Wilshire Boulevard and it upsets a good planning process on Olympic Boulevard,” Cornwell said.

A large project of this sort, away from Wilshire Boulevard and outside the area to be served by the Red Line subway, runs counter to the Wilshire Community Plan that guides development, Cornwell said.

But supporters, such as the Miracle Mile Apartment and Commerical Owners Assn., see it as a centerpiece for a rejuvenated Koreatown, said Linda Scheid, the association’s president.

The promise of jobs and investment are benefits that “outweigh any doubts,” said Patricia Cross of Country Club Park Neighborhood Assn., whose western boundary is next to the project area. “We like the concept of a center that can bring international business into our community.”