Ground Broken for Cultural Co-op

About 50 people gathered in the hub of the NoHo Arts District on Wednesday to break ground for a proposed artistic cooperative dubbed Nomads 1800.

The brainchild of Marina del Rey entrepreneur Jennifer Kelton, Nomads 1800 would be a mini-mall with gallery space, a health-conscious restaurant, a music and film venue and eclectic stores. Much of the development is already incorporated as a nonprofit arts group.

“We’re artist-driven, artist-created and artist-built,” Kelton said of the project, which is scheduled to open next spring at 5259 Lankershim Blvd.

The construction of the low-slung, modern building housing the co-op is funded by a $435,000 Community Redevelopment Agency commercial earthquake-recovery loan given to owners John and Georgette Narguizian, whose original building was demolished in the Northridge temblor. Kelton has leased the building.

Through corporate sponsorships and fund-raising, Kelton expects to raise $200,000 for improvements to the inside of the building, which she envisions as an airy, funky cultural center. Private contributions worth about $50,000 are already in the bank, she said.

The project has been hailed by North Hollywood boosters as the kind of project NoHo needs to propel the arts district.

“It sounds fabulous, like exactly the perfect thing for the area,” said Bob Scott, president of the Los Angeles Planning Commission. “You have to create a destination that people will travel across the intervening dead spaces to get to--that’s the challenge for North Hollywood.”

Lillian Burkenheim, the CRA’s North Hollywood project manager, said she has great faith that the project will come to fruition.

Kelton “is basically there,” she said. “I’ve never worked with anyone who has sat down and worked out all the pitfalls . . . thoroughly and methodically like she has.”

Before undertaking the arts co-op, Kelton ran the successful but now-defunct Nomads nightclub in West Los Angeles.