Council Panel OKs Spending $90 Million on Hollywood Redevelopment Project

A proposal to spend $90 million in city money on a massive Hollywood redevelopment project breezed through a joint City Council committee hearing Wednesday, winning a favorable recommendation on its way to the full council next week.

The swift 3-0 committee endorsement left supporters of the proposed retail-entertainment complex predicting approval from the council next Tuesday.

“I think it’s going to go through to victory. I don’t think it will be without some questions being asked by the full council,” said Hollywood Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose office, along with the mayor’s and the Community Redevelopment Agency, has spent the last year negotiating a deal with TrizecHahn Centers, a subsidiary of a multibillion-dollar Canadian real estate company.

The development agreement calls for the city to spend $60 million building a public parking garage beneath the project, along with $30 million on a theater to host the Academy Awards presentations.

The latest in a long line of attempts to pump economic life back into Hollywood, the $385-million project has succeeded in garnering political and community support that eluded previous proposals.

“There is this moment where, for whatever reasons, we all seem to understand there is this unique opportunity in front of us,” said TrizecHahn executive David Malmuth, who is overseeing the project, to be built on two blocks near Mann’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Although there was a handful of dissenters at the committee hearing--two chronic CRA critics and the president of the Hollywood Heights Assn.--there were far more supporters in the audience.

They didn’t have a chance to utter a word before council members Richard Alatorre, Rudy Svorinich Jr. and Mike Feuer voted to recommend the CRA deal and then rushed off to budget hearings.

“We had really fought out an awful lot of the issues that needed to be fought out before we came forward,” Goldberg said of the favorable reception.

To answer concerns raised by the city administrative officer and chief legislative analyst, the deal has been fine-tuned over the last couple of weeks, extending a theater loan guarantee by TrizecHahn and ensuring that the city’s general fund is not used to cover any shortfalls in city debt payments.

Although the administrative officer and legislative analyst have reviewed the project and attended Wednesday’s committee hearing, they have not issued their reports on the CRA deal. That troubles Councilman Joel Wachs, who was one of the loudest voices questioning taxpayer support of the city’s new sports arena.

“My concern is we’re now making decisions without the facts,” Wachs complained in an interview. “How can we make any decision without knowing what it’s going to cost the city?

“We need full public analysis,” he continued. “It may turn out to be fabulous, I have no idea. . . . I’m starting to become concerned about the process.”

The city economic analysis should be released before the full council reviews the proposal, according to Goldberg’s office.

Under the CRA agreement, the city would own the parking lot and the 3,300-seat theater. TrizecHahn would operate the theater, pay the city a $12.5-million licensing fee over 20 years and guarantee the theater debt for at least 11 years.

The CRA expects to pay the theater debt with overall revenue from the project and use parking fees from the site to repay the garage debt.