MTA Advances Housing Plan Near Subway

A county transit agency Wednesday advanced a plan by the group that stages the Grammy Awards to build a senior housing project for music-industry retirees next to the North Hollywood subway station.

Encore Hall, proposed for Metropolitan Transportation Authority property across Lankershim Boulevard from the subway station, would include six stories of apartment units with the ground floor reserved mostly for retail shops.

“This will provide a place where seniors from the music industry can come together in an innovative and unique setting that will have music rooms and an auditorium,” said Adam Sandler, a spokesman for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS).

The project would cost more than $20 million and be developed jointly by the academy’s charitable wing, MusiCares, and a private, for-profit developer, Emeritus Assisted Living.

More than half of the 160 apartments would be reserved for music-industry retirees, who would receive assisted living services and subsidized rent.

“We’ve looked at other locations but this site fits like a glove with our goals for the project,” Sandler said, noting it is near the El Portal Theater, where music programs could be staged.

The academy has been criticized for spending only a fraction of the charitable funds it raises on one of its primary charitable functions--providing assistance to needy and ailing musicians. The Times reported in 1998, for example, that MusiCares spent only about 10 cents of every donated dollar on such services, but banked hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for undisclosed purposes.

After those reports were published, NARAS announced plans to finance the construction of Encore Hall out of those funds, among others.

A proposal to enter negotiations with the academy on the project was sent Wednesday to the MTA board without recommendation by a subcommittee after some members asked for an evaluation of whether the project is appropriate for MTA land.

“I think it’s a very exciting concept, but I’d like to have a little staff reaction,” said MTA board member Jenny Oropeza, during a meeting of the construction committee.

Deputy Mayor Jaime de la Vega introduced the motion calling for fast-track talks, stating the academy faces a June 30 deadline to gain control of a site or risk losing state and local government funding.

As the first proposal to develop the MTA’s vast holdings around its soon-to-open subway station, the senior apartment project is important, De la Vega said.

“The purpose here is we need to get development around the rail station accelerated,” he said.

With the subway station set to open June 24, the MTA and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency have been criticized for not doing more to make sure development occurs around the station.

But members of a citizens panel set up by the city to advise the redevelopment agency questioned Wednesday whether affordable housing for senior citizens is the best use of prime real estate within walking distance of a multi-billion-dollar transit system.

North Hollywood attorney Glenn Hoiby, who chairs the Project Area Committee, said the neighborhood already has senior housing nearby but is in greater need of businesses with high-paying jobs.

“The question is whether or not this is appropriate, whether it’s the best use of the property,” Hoiby said.

Victor Viereck, an accountant and member of the Project Area Committee, also questioned whether the project is the best use of the property.

“I think that’s one of the least uses for it. We need something viable that will create jobs in there,” Viereck said.

More senior housing is needed in the city, but so are jobs, said Lorretta Dash, president of the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

“It would not be my first choice for a project there,” she said.

Times staff writer Michael A. Hiltzik contributed to this story.