East L.A. Research Complex Proposed

Los Angeles city and county officials announced a plan Tuesday to convert a shabby industrial swath near County-USC Medical Center into a gleaming research hub for world-class biomedical advances.

In the next 20 years, its backers said, the proposed 833-acre redevelopment project would give new life to a disintegrating part of East Los Angeles, generate well-paying jobs, and become the regional hub for medical industry research already taking place at scores of laboratories, companies and academic institutions.

Biomedical research “has been the Rodney Dangerfield industry of Southern California,” said Lee Harrington, president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “We’re overlooked, and we shouldn’t be.”

County Supervisor Gloria Molina and City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, whose districts include the area, said at a news conference at the site that they would call for the creation of a joint redevelopment agency by January 2006. Molina said builders would be able to go to a single panel for streamlined approvals.

The proposed site, stretching east of the Golden State Freeway and north of the San Bernardino Freeway, includes several well-known facilities, such as USC’s Keck School of Medicine, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Doheny Eye Institute.

The west end would be anchored by the new 600-bed County-USC Medical Center, scheduled to replace the nearby existing building in 2007.

The Los Angeles area, with no concentrated biomedical research complex, is seen as fertile ground for a campus rivaling Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, which houses dozens of companies and laboratories on the cutting edge of technology.

“People from all over the world will come here,” Molina predicted.

The region already is home to the USC and UCLA medical campuses, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the City of Hope cancer center, Caltech and other major players in medical technology and research that would be expected to share information and use training facilities at the new research campus.

USC, which owns some of the land within the proposed redevelopment area, is a partner in the project. The university has begun planning the first two buildings, totaling 350,000 square feet. Much of the proposed project area is vacant land or abandoned industrial yards. Molina said surrounding residential neighborhoods -- mostly low- and moderate-income housing -- would be left intact.

Villaraigosa, who began gathering support for a research park more than two years ago, estimated that it would cost $500 million in public and private money to build, and would bring 8,500 medical, research, training and technical positions.