Parking-Space Dispute Delays Hollywood Retail Development
A dispute over parking spaces has delayed the development of a $50-million Hollywood shopping and entertainment center and is forcing the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce into the awkward position of siding against one of its most prominent members.
Regent Properties blames a lawsuit filed by affiliates of Meringoff Equities for a nearly six-month-long delay that led to a major tenant’s dropping out of its Hollywood Marketplace, a 250,000-square-foot development considered a key piece in Hollywood’s revitalization. Meringoff--one of Hollywood’s largest landlords--says it is not at fault and is simply trying to guarantee sufficient parking for its tenants and neighboring businesses.
City officials and Hollywood business leaders have been working for months to resolve the dispute over Regent’s project, which would rise at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. A trial date is set for Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, though an agreement could be reached within the next several days. But many observers say the quarrel has already stirred resentment and detracted from Hollywood’s much-touted but still unrealized renaissance.
“It’s been a big deal,” said a major Hollywood real estate developer who is not involved in the dispute. Meringoff executives “have been leaders in the [business improvement district] and they have done a great job with their buildings. But this has caught everybody by surprise. This is just not what Hollywood needs.”
The standoff began earlier this year when Beverly Hills-based Regent Properties revealed plans for its project, which would include redevelopment of the venerable but little-used Doolittle Theatre on Vine Street. Regent would team up with the city’s redevelopment agency to build a city-owned parking garage on the lot next to the Doolittle. The garage along with another parking structure would provide a combined 1,420 spaces for the convenience of shoppers and theater patrons.
But the garage would sit on the lot many Meringoff Equity tenants use for monthly parking. After failing to win the promise of guaranteed parking in the garage, affiliates of Meringoff filed suit in June against the city of Los Angeles’s redevelopment agenct and Regent claiming that the environmental impact report failed to deal with the project’s effect on parking. Meringoff’s demand to review the parking issue would only add to the delays, local officials say.
“We are very much in favor of the Hollywood Marketplace development going forward as long as the impact on the community is mitigated,” Meringoff spokesman Harvey Englander said.
The Los Angeles City Council earlier this month approved the project and a plan to finance the parking garages with bonds to be paid off with parking revenue. But that approval means nothing until the lawsuit is resolved.
“It’s delayed our project and caused some tenants to leave,” said Douglas Brown, a partner at Regent Properties, which has developed retail centers across the Southland, including Glendale Marketplace. “We’re all trying to resurrect the deal and hold it together.”
In addition to the loss of Good Guys, an electronics store, Regent Properties must find a replacement for a six-screen Mann Theatre because the movie-house chain has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Regent Properties, a newcomer to Hollywood, won the support of the Hollywood Chamber despite Meringoff Properties’ long-standing presence in the community. The firm, controlled by New York real estate magnate Stephen Meringoff, owns about 600,000 square feet of Hollywood office space, including the CNN Tower on Sunset Boulevard and two office buildings at the community’s most famous intersection: Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. One of the company’s local executives, Rob Langer, sits on the chamber’s board of directors.
Chamber members have been urged to lobby Regent Properties to drop the lawsuit. In a letter sent to Stephen Meringoff in October, chamber President Leron Gubler said: “We believe that if you proceed with this lawsuit, you will jeopardize this important project for Hollywood and set back the revitalization of the Hollywood-and-Vine area for years to come.”
Chamber Chairman Oscar Arslanian said the lawsuit is unnecessary because the size of the parking garage has been doubled to 500 spaces to permit enough room for Meringoff tenants and visitors.
“We feel the parking situation has been mitigated to the best interest of Meringoff and their tenants,” Arslanian said. “So drop the lawsuit and let Regent go ahead.”
But Meringoff has not budged.
“It can’t go forward if it hurts those people who have been working for years to bring Hollywood back,” Englander said.
City officials have been thrown into the fray. The Marketplace and a new retail center surrounding the Cinerama Dome are expected to stimulate further development on the eastern edge of the area with shops catering primarily to local residents. In Hollywood’s western section, meanwhile, the $350-million Hollywood & Highland project is designed to appeal to the large number of tourists.
“With two strong anchors at both ends, Hollywood should have enough critical mass for the central part to become healthy,” said Jeffrey Skorneck, the Community Redevelopment Agency’s Hollywood project manager. Skorneck and other public officials say a solution to the dispute is expected to be reached shortly, allowing the project to go forward.
“We are going to have to deal with the lawsuit,” said Roxana Tynan, economic development deputy for Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who represents the area. “This is the last opportunity for retailers to take advantage of a great location.”
