St. Vibiana’s Bought by Developer

St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, the 123-year-old abandoned landmark that escaped demolition after lengthy court battles, has been purchased by a downtown developer who hopes to rehabilitate the quake-damaged church as the centerpiece of an educational, housing and cultural complex.

A firm headed by Tom Gilmore recently bought the downtown Los Angeles church and adjacent rectory and school buildings, which are two blocks north of historic commercial buildings that Gilmore plans to convert into a trendy residential loft district.

“This is really the chance of a lifetime,” Gilmore said Monday. “I don’t think there are a lot of guys who go out and buy a cathedral.”

Officials of the Roman Catholic archdiocese confirmed the $4.6-million sale of the former cathedral at 2nd and Main streets on the edge of skid row.

Gilmore is in discussions with Cal State Los Angeles to use the church and class buildings as performance and teaching facilities and is talking with another group about starting a charter school there. In addition, the developer has ideas for a small hotel and a restaurant in the rectory and for a new apartment building on the empty lot just south of the church, where a homeless shelter used to stand.

However, Gilmore and downtown redevelopment experts concede that the project faces tough challenges, including what he estimates to be at least $4 million in seismic repairs to the church, damaged in the 1994 Northridge quake and other temblors. Homeless men now camp out against the church walls. The atmosphere is sad during the day and foreboding at night--not one that conjures images of classical music concerts or fine dining.

Msgr. Terrance Fleming, vicar general of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, estimated that 10 potential buyers looked at the cathedral over the past three years, but everyone else lost interest amid questions about costs and feasibility.

“We’ve been trying to market it for a number of years, and we are very happy that someone of Mr. Gilmore’s stature and experience is willing to make the investment,” Fleming said.

According to Gilmore, a company he formed for the cathedral deal made “a sizable” down payment and will pay interest to the archdiocese for two years. Then, he must find financing to pay off the remainder of the $4.65 million. Gilmore said he hopes to attract private funds as well as city and state loans, tax credits and grants.

“I’m going to every trough I can find,” he said, adding that the project will not pencil out without some government aid. Construction would not begin for at least a year.

Details of the cathedral sale are to be formally announced this morning at a news conference, which city leaders are expected to attend.

In June 1996, the archdiocese began to dismantle the 83-foot-high bell tower, a first step toward razing the Spanish Baroque-style church to make way for a new cathedral at the site. That prompted outrage from preservationists, led by the Los Angeles Conservancy organization, which then won a series of court cases that at least temporarily halted razing. Mayor Richard Riordan sided with Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in seeking to tear down what historians say was a focus of 19th century Los Angeles life.

Frustrated, the archdiocese found another location downtown to build its new and much larger cathedral and stripped the old church of stained glass windows, pews and holy artifacts. The $163-million Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral is expected to open in 2002.

Linda Dishman, executive director of the conservancy, said she was very pleased with the sale. Her group worked to find a buyer and, with USC, even sponsored an exhibit to generate proposed uses for the church, including a hotel, arts center and commercial exhibition hall.

“It’s a win-win solution because the cathedral will be saved and become the focal point of a whole complex that will be a powerful tool to linking Little Tokyo and the Civic Center,” Dishman said.

In June 1997, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the 1,200-seat cathedral on its annual list of endangered landmarks, along with 10 other sites such as the Wa’ahila Ridge in Hawaii and decaying portions of Ellis Island in New York. St. Vibiana’s, which contained relics of its namesake third century Italian martyr, was built in 1876 when Los Angeles had a population of 9,000. In 1922, it was overhauled, its brick exterior covered with limestone.

The church remains red-tagged by the city as a quake hazard and is fronted by wooden barricades and barbed wire. Paint is peeling off its beige exterior, and cracks are visible in its tower. But Dishman said she was inside the building a few months ago and recalled that, even with boards in the windows, “the structure still has this incredible grace and presence.”

Mahony lives in the rectory building and, under a rental agreement with Gilmore, would continue to do so until his future residence next to the new cathedral on Temple Street is finished.

Gilmore has won fans, and skeptics, of the nearby $32-million project he has dubbed the Old Bank District, which encompasses three empty office buildings on the south side of 4th Street between Spring and Main. Renovation is scheduled to begin next month on what is to be 245 loft apartments geared to artists and young professionals, with shops and cafes on street level.

The developer said he first got interested in the cathedral as a way to improve the neighborhood around his Old Bank District investment, but also saw it as a way to preserve part of the city’s history and urban fabric.

“I want to make money,” he said of the cathedral project. “But I also want to have some fun and do the right thing.”

Cal State Los Angeles has had talks with Gilmore about leasing the cathedral complex for teacher training classes and student arts performances, said Carl Selking, dean of the School of Arts and Letters. “There are a lot of issues and challenges that have not been worked out yet. But it is a very enticing space and we hope to continue discussion,” he said Monday.

Anita Landecker, vice president of Excellent Education Development, said it is looking at parts of the church campus for a charter school associated with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“We are interested if the property becomes completely seismically safe to put children in it,” she said.

Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Assn. that advocates downtown development, said she welcomed the church sale. In combination with Gilmore’s other downtown plans, she said, it has the potential of changing “not just a building, in this case the cathedral, but that whole neighborhood.”