OverviewPressLinks Back to Press page Downtown LA Revival Heads East Publish Date: 06/28/2004 June 28, 2004 – Downtown LA Revival Heads East Article Date: 06/28/04 Full Story: It seems that more and more developers, investors and city boosters are taking the growing revival in downtown Los Angeles very seriously. And they’re also taking it eastward. A couple of recent articles in the LA Times by Roger Vincent give us a better idea of what some of these latest plans entail, one of which is an exciting redevelopment of the former Sears, Roebuck & Co distribution center at the southeastern edge of the region, on Olympic Blvd in Boyle Heights. Built in the late 1920s and closed down for a number of years now, the 1.8 msf, nine-story art-deco facility is slated to be at the heart of a $350 mil development by MJW Investments, the Mark Weinstein-led group that is also renovating a number of old buildings at his Santee Court project in downtown LA’s garment district. MJW is looking to move forward on a $350 mil development that will include 480 condos and 180 apartments, along with about 750k sf of stores and restaurant space situated at street-level throughout the project. Weinstein still has to get the city’s blessing, however, as his company has been meeting with local groups to gain the support he needs. In the meantime, Sears still leases space for a retail store in the building, at the corner of Olympic and Soto St. And, if all goes according to plans, there would still be a Sears store on the ground floor of the renovated structure, which was acquired from Univest, out of Arizona. Per a Times piece from June 19, MJW is looking at putting a private school and parking on the second and third floors, while using the upper levels for residential units and additional parking. The facility has huge 200k sf floor-plates, an important part of the original mail-order distribution use of the building. Architect Stefanos Polyziodes, out of Pasadena, is overseeing the design of the 23-acre project, which is hoped to be seen as a people-friendly shopping and residential area for the community, rather than a mall. There are also a number of other exciting developments going on closer to the city center, but still on the east side of downtown, very near to Olvera St and what is considered to be the oldest part of Los Angeles. Much of the excitement is over at Catellus’ Union Station along Alameda St, where the big Bay Area-based developer has a new office building underway and has sold another lot to Lincoln Property for construction of a $45 mil apartment project. The residential development will contain a total of 275k sf split into two five-story buildings at Alameda and Cesar E. Chavez Ave. Slated for completion sometime next year, the project will have parking for 400 cars and a foot-bridge that will connect the two buildings. Also at Union Station, Catellus is building a three-story, 50k sf structure, expected to cost $7 mil, for the non-profit group First Five LA, which was created by the passage of Proposition 10 a few years ago and distributes money from a special tobacco tax to benefit children in need. To help maintain revenues for the future, they should hand out free cigarettes to first-time smokers (okay – that’s a Meathead idea!). Barely a block north of Union Station, Urban Partners is building a $62 mil facility for the California Endowment on a 6.5-acre site at Alameda and North Main St, adjacent to the Terminal Annex building that was the Post Office’s main location in the city until it closed about five years ago. The non-profit will be relocating from Woodland Hills when the new building is ready for occupancy in 2006. Rio Clemente Hale Studios is the architect for the four-story, 118k sf building. And a short distance north of that building, the Post Office is developing a pair of buildings, a 15k sf post office branch and a 140k sf, two-story structure that will be used as a distribution center for the mail carriers. Together, the buildings will have a combined a price tag of $7.7 mil, according to a spokesperson quoted in one of the Times articles.