Civic Center Development Back on Track : Downtown: Plans for lot at 1st and Broadway include office towers, tree-lined plaza with upscale eateries and entertainment areas.

An ambitious plan to transform a debris-strewn lot across from Los Angeles City Hall into a Civic Center showpiece is back on track, thanks to a compromise deal tentatively struck between the county and the developer, officials said Friday.

The lot at 1st Street and Broadway has become an embarrassing blemish on the city’s visage, prompting jeers from wandering tourists, Downtown workers and civic leaders alike.

But county officials are hoping the sneers will turn to cheers under a proposed agreement with developer Raffi Cohen that promises two office towers, subterranean parking and an expansive tree-lined plaza encircling upscale eateries, a shopping arcade and entertainment areas.

“We’ve been talking off and on for the last six months and have had a number of last-minute discussions,” said Sally Reed, Los Angeles County’s chief administrative officer. “I think we’ve finally worked out something that will be satisfactory.”

Among those pushing hard for some resolution has been Mayor Richard Riordan, who apparently has grown weary of having an unsightly vacant lot so near to his City Hall doorsteps.

“The mayor has said to me that we’ve got to get something going,” Reed said. “All you have to do is drive by to realize something has to happen.”

Officials have been puzzling over what to do with the property--once home to state and county office buildings--for years, finally signing an agreement with Cohen in 1990 to develop the parcel.

But earlier this year, county officials declared Cohen and his then-partners in default, contending that the group had failed to make any improvements and had fallen behind in rent.

Cohen has since formed a new partnership with Los Angeles businessman Louis Gonda, who, under terms of the proposed agreement, will invest $5 million toward construction of the plaza phase of the project.

The new partnership, L.A. Civic Center Associates, has tentatively agreed to a series of financial commitments designed to reassure state and county officials, as well as put the project on more solid economic footing, Reed said.

The terms include provision of a $4.2-million line of credit as a performance guarantee, payment of back rent totaling $1.2 million, and an advance deposit of $375,000 as security against default of the new rental agreement.

In addition, the state and county, which jointly own the property, will share a $383,000 payment of revenues from the surface parking lot that is now on part of the development site.

(The city has been intimately involved in negotiations because it owns several easements on the property but is not technically a party to the agreement.)

As part of the compromise, the Cohen group will be allowed to complete the project in two basic phases and will also be able to implement some architectural and design changes.

The proposed agreement calls for a 68-year lease, with construction to begin no later than Feb. 1.

Although the proposed deal must be approved by the county Board of Supervisors and the state, Cohen and his associates are promising that a much-needed face lift of the lot will begin within the month, with crews clearing away brush and concrete rubble remaining from the state building.

“We view (the proposed agreement) as a very positive step and believe the First Civic Center development will be a valuable addition to the government mall which extends from City Hall to the Department of Water and Power,” said Edward G. Shirley, vice president and general counsel of Raffi Cohen Industries.

Shirley said that once final contracts are approved, his group hopes to begin construction of the first phase of a Civic Center mall, which he described as a street-level terrace with extensive landscaping, 30,000 square feet of retail space and a 760-space underground parking garage.

The second phase would consist of two office towers totaling about 575,000 square feet of office and retail space, including a child-care center and a 1,200-space parking garage. Under the proposed agreement, construction of the first tower would start no later than December 31, 1998, and the second by December 1, 2001.

For the Cohen group, the 1st and Broadway site looms as a key staging area in the growing movement to consolidate Downtown government activities. The idea has been propounded by Downtown business interests and such groups as the newly revitalized Civic Center Planning Authority, which counts city, county, state and federal representatives on its advisory panel.

“Considerable interest has been expressed by some city, some local and some state agencies for leasing substantive portions of the development,” said Shirley. “Now that the uncertainties of the past few months are over we can pursue that.”

City officials Friday acknowledged that they are considering the development--if and when it occurs--as a site for another City Hall annex.

“We in the mayor’s office would love to see our central plaza be something other than a dump-slash-parking lot,” said Riordan spokeswoman Jane Galbraith.

Civic leaders voiced cautious optimism that a refurbishing of this key parcel may at long last be in the works and agreed that the site could provide an anchor for a revitalized Downtown core.

“This is an important piece of property that should have a public building on it, so if the county ends up with an agreement that forces Raffi to get going, we’ll be very happy,” said architect Christopher C. Martin, Civic Center planning chairman for the Central Cities Assn., a Downtown business lobbying group.

But Martin--noting that similar deals have fallen through--cautioned against holding hopes too high.

“He’s taking a big gamble and it’s not going to be easy,” Martin said.