2 Major Projects Vie for Subway Station Location

By JILL LEOVY

Oct. 31, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — Reflecting the growing importance of the Metro Rail subway line, two developers working with major studios submitted competing building plans Friday for projects that promise to transform the humble face of North Hollywood.

One group has proposed a 1.7-million-square-foot development anchored by a CBS Center Studios-managed studio project, and including a culinary institute, food court, banquet space and a 1,875-seat performing arts center. The project would create more than 4,000 permanent jobs, proponents say.

But not to be outdone, longtime California retail developer J. Allen Radford filed a revised and expanded plan Friday that dwarfs the competition: a billion-dollar project with 4.26 million square feet of studio space anchored most likely by Hollywood Center Studios, and including movie theaters, a hotel, condominiums, four 20-story office towers and an open-air theater. The project would create about 14,000 jobs and take 10 years to complete.

“This is a $1-billion bang for North Hollywood,” Radford said.

Radford’s competition is a development partnership of local builders William Kokott and Nicholas Angelos of ANKO Construction Inc., and New York investor Henry Cabot Lodge III of American Corporate Real Estate Inc. Kokott is president of the partnership, called Academy Media Centre LLC of Beverly Hills.

“It’s the entire concept that makes [our project] work and draws people,” Kokott said. “The studio portion draws business and office support. . . . The performing arts center enhances it all.”

Both plans were solicited by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the controversial city agency with the power to use local property taxes and condemn property. The CRA will help assemble properties, including a key 6-acre portion owned by the California State Department of Transportation. The CRA may also provide subsidies.

The decision will be made by CRA directors and the Los Angeles City Council.

Regardless of who wins the competition, long-languishing North Hollywood--an area marked by taco stands and auto shops--could be dramatically transformed.

Both projects are expected to meet opposition from some area homeowners, and business owners who don’t want to sell.

“This proposal proposes to use the powers of eminent domain to remove businesses that have been in that area a long time,” said Mildred Weller, a North Hollywood business owner and longtime critic of the CRA. “The moral question is, should the government have a right to remove people from properties by eminent domain when they have been there for 20 or 40 years?”

Both proposals state they contain room for existing businesses.

Sources familiar with the projects say that there are substantial pressures to expand entertainment industry uses in the area.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said David Young, a senior vice president with Capital Commercial Real Estate Services, who handles studio and industrial deals. “There is a real strong desire now for state-of-the-art studios, which in this area doesn’t exist. The problem for industry is warehouse space converted to quasi sound stages. It’s not adequate for them. They really need high-clearance, state-of-the-art sound stages.”

Such facilities are being planned in Valencia, and possibly in Los Angeles just east of the Los Angeles River near Glendale, he said. But both sites are a little too far from the heart of the entertainment industry in the southeast San Fernando Valley. A studio that got off the ground in North Hollywood “would be a winner,” Young predicted.

The interest in the North Hollywood site shows that developers are recognizing the potential “synergy” from a Metro Rail station in their midst, said Rockard Delgadillo, deputy Los Angeles mayor for economic development. The MTA is expected to open the North Hollywood station of the Red Line subway in May 2001.

Both proposed developments would surround the station on Lankershim Boulevard. And both rely heavily on an expectation the subway will provide access for both customers and workers.

Said Carol Inge, a director specializing in station-area development at the MTA: “We are delighted. We have always hoped and expected that our subway stations would be catalysts for economic development. . . . I think that’s what’s happening.”

“A lot of this has to do with the MTA Red Line,” Radford agreed. “The opportunities are immense. . . . You will be able to walk out of [these offices], into the subway, and with safety, consistency, reliability and convenience be downtown at the civic center in 22 minutes. We are going to say, ‘Leave your car at home.’ ”

The station also caught Kokott’s interest. “I think the subway station will provide a hub for the entire Valley,” he said.

The Radford proposal would include the 11-acre site above the MTA station, where two 20-story office buildings and a 300-room hotel would stand, said Radford, whose company is JARCO/SLG&G; LLC.

Also included in the Radford project, called the North Hollywood Studio Complex, are two other 20-story office towers, 350,000 square feet of retail stores, including 20 food and restaurant venues, a 20-screen multiplex theater, 500,000 square feet of three-story garden offices, 400 condominium units, a 1,000-seat open-air theater and the project’s anchor: 10 sound stages combined with 180,000 square feet of pre- and post-production offices and 60,000 square feet of support buildings, commissaries, film libraries and screening rooms.

The proposal also includes about 18,000 parking spaces.

Kokott’s competing Academy Media Centre project includes eight sound stages, bungalows, offices, storage and support buildings, a retail, restaurant and food court complex, 90,000-square-foot performing arts center, eight-story office tower, two four-story office towers, including one containing a culinary school run by Robert Serin combined with community banquet space, three more office buildings, 178 market-rate apartment units, and enough parking to exceed city parking requirements by 50% plus 200 additional spaces.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from a lot of major players,” Kokott said. “This is near the hub of the entertainment business. It’s close to everything, and it’s an area in need of a face-lift.”

Radford, based in Santa Monica, said he has built about 15 million square feet of retail development in California over the past 30 years. Kokott has built scattered projects that include condominiums, the Harbor/UCLA Medical Foundation building, the auditorium at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two shopping centers in Las Vegas now under construction.

Development experience most likely will weigh heavily in the CRA’s selection, but so will finances. Kokott said he has letters of interest from banks for debt financing and equity financing sufficient to fund his entire project, while Radford said he has financing for the first phase, and would obtain financing for later phases as they unfold.

The CRA is looking for a developer with the means to build the project “with little or no public subsidy,” said Walter Beaumont of the CRA in North Hollywood. A finalist, who will be given exclusive rights to negotiate with the CRA, could be presented to the CRA board as early as December, he said.

“At the end of the day, we will evaluate who will get to success in the fastest amount of time,” said Delgadillo, the deputy mayor. “My sense is that if we let the momentum die, the whole project will fall apart. We have to capture the momentum we have now.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NoHo Studio Plans

Two developers are competing to build projects to cover some 50 acres in downtown North Hollywood. The proposed North Hollywood Studio Complex would be larger, at 4.26 million square feet. The proposed Academy Media Centre is planned at 1.7 million square feet. The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency will consider both proposals and make a recommendation to the CRA Board of Directors. The developer selected will benefit from the CRA’s authority to condemn property.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD STUDIO COMPLEX

Plan includes:

* 10 sound stages

* Four 20-story buildings

* 300-room hotel

* 20 restaurants

* 20 screen multiplex

* Retail stores

* 400 condominiums

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ACADEMY MEDIA CENTER

Plan includes: