Panel Recommends Builder for Proposed NoHo Studio Project
A city panel recommended Tuesday that a team headed by J. Allen Radford be chosen to build a $750-million movie studio and commercial complex next to the North Hollywood subway station.
A committee of Community Redevelopment Agency managers and outside consultants recommended the 42-acre project by Radford’s partnership, Jarco/SLG&G;, over a proposal by local builders William Kokott and Nicholas Angelos.
The decision, which means construction of studio sound stages could begin next year, brought cheers from those who see it as a needed economic shot in the arm, but prompted skepticism from some small businesses in the area.
On March 4, the CRA board will consider negotiating exclusively with Radford for six months to work out a development agreement on the project, called the North Hollywood Studio Complex.
“We’re very pleased and very excited that we were chosen,” Radford said after being notified Tuesday morning. “We were well along the way [in planning], and now that we’ve been chosen we’ll complete the work.”
CRA board member Keith Richman said he would be briefed on the selection committee’s recommendation later in the week, but looks forward to the massive development, which would include 2.8 million square feet of commercial space and 400 condominiums.
“It has the potential to offer a great degree of economic development to the North Hollywood area,” said Richman, a San Fernando Valley physician.
Radford, who is based in Santa Monica, has proposed the project in at least three phases, starting early next year with the construction of 10 film sound stages and support offices totaling 432,000 square feet on the southwest corner of Vineland Avenue and Cumpston Street.
The studio operator may be Hollywood Center Studios, formerly Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Studio, which is in Hollywood.
The second phase would include 385,000 square feet of offices and retail space. Phase 3 would include two 20-story office towers, 20 restaurants and movie theaters.
Radford also hopes to build two additional 20-story office towers and a 300-room hotel on an adjacent parcel owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but that portion of the project was separated from the CRA plan because of uncertainty over its availability.
In looking at two competing proposals, the city’s evaluation committee chose the project it believed has the best chance of happening with the least financial involvement of the city.
“It’s the most likely to succeed,” said one city official involved in the screening process.
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Radford has asked the CRA to make commitments worth about $15 million to the development, in addition to $14 million in federal loan guarantees already committed, one high-level city source said.
CRA officials want their involvement to be limited to using the agency’s powers to help assemble properties needed for the project.
“We’re not there yet,” said one CRA official.
Radford said Tuesday that he has already purchased or gained options on 20% of the project site. The CRA has the power of eminent domain to force other property owners to sell their land if need be.
That scares some property owners in the area, said attorney Glenn Hoiby, chairman of the CRA’s North Hollywood Project Area Committee.
“We are very apprehensive about the elimination of existing small businesses in the area,” Hoiby said.
He said it would be inappropriate for the government to use its powers to take two dozen private properties for the benefit of another private developer.
“It’s a perversion of their powers,” he said.
Hoiby said the area will be hurt by the large amount of additional traffic that will result from the project.
Radford said he will complete an environmental impact report to address effects on the surrounding neighborhoods. But Hoiby doubted that the CRA would review the project closely.
“It’s going to be rubber-stamped because there is so much momentum from the CRA bureaucrats,” Hoiby said. “They desperately need the increased tax revenue from this project to keep the agency afloat.”
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Others say the development will be a major boost for efforts to revitalize an economically distressed area of the San Fernando Valley.
“It’s a wonderful shot in the arm for North Hollywood,”said Ivy Weiss, executive director of the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
“It will bring more commerce and jobs to the area,” she added. “It will bring the film industry back to where it belongs.”
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Proposed NoHo Studio Complex
A committee has recommended approval of the proposed North Hollywood Studio Complex on 42 acres near the new MTA station. The Community Redevelopment Agency Board will make the final decision on the 2.8-million-square-foot project. With sound stages, office high-rises and restaurants, stores and condominiums, boosters see the proposal as further evidence of the revitalization of North Hollywood.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD STUDIO COMPLEX
Plan includes:
* 10 sound stages and support facilities
* Two 20-story office buildings
* 20 restaurants
* Retail stores
* 400 condominiums
