Commercial Reuse Task Force Gets Council OK

By Eric Richardson
Published: Wednesday, November 05, 2008, at 04:49PM

558 S. Broadway Eric Richardson [Flickr]

The F.B. Silverwood Building at 6th and Broadway opened in 1920 as a six-floor, 115,400 square foot department store. Today it offers ground-floor jewelry retail and minimal upper-floor use.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Councilman Jose Huizar hopes that new rules for Broadway's million square feet of vacant commercial space will bring the next great phase of Downtown's revitalization. "We all know the wonders that Adaptive Reuse did for residential," Huizar told the Council this morning. "Let's do the same for [commercial] spaces."

Council today passed the motion that Huizar had introduced just two weeks ago. It asked for a task force to be created that would come up with new rules to govern the revitalization of empty commercial space on Broadway and in the Historic Core. Many buildings have been empty so long that their occupancy permits have expired, and any new use would require substantial and often impractical retrofitting.

Today's action instructs the Community Redevelopment Agency to convene the "Bringing Back Broadway Commercial Reuse Task Force," to include representatives from "the Department of Building & Safety; Los Angeles Fire Department; Department of City Planning; Office of Historic Resources; Department of Public Works; Bureau of Sanitation; Department of Water and Power; Community Development Department; Chief Legislative Analyst's Office; City Attorney's Office; Council District 14; Council District 9; the Mayor's Office and other departments/agencies as necessary, along with business and development representatives to be identified by CD14."

Once convened, the task force is instructed to report back in 60 days. It is asked to look at ways to ease the rules on reuse, as well as ways to spur new uses in the historic buildings.

The motion also asks that any change-of-use projects in-process in the Historic Core be placed into case management, a mechanism for making sure that applicants are dealing with the proper departments and moving forward efficiently.

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Comments

1
john q writes:

oh great, here we go again.

the council does a giveaway to the building owners; years from now, when they offer market-rate housing, the same council will assail them for "not preserving affordable housing".

meanwhile, the rest of us will be asked to pay even more taxes to support the various social programs that the council will invent.

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 08:49 AM
2
Film writes:

But john this task force is for commercial not residential use. So, can you explain how your example works out for this. Thanks.

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 09:07 AM
3
Susana writes:

Well I am glad that Councilman Huizar recognizes the potential for Broadway. I can imagine a Target coming to one of those buildings. They would have a set clientele from people on their lunch breaks and a weekend customer base formed by those that reside in downtown. Broadway has great foot traffic on weekdays and weekends, it is ripe for commercial re-invention. I enjoy living in Downtown, working here and shopping here. I cannot wait until I can stop driving to Pasadena to go to Target, JCrew, or Crate and Barrel. The Downtownnews is promoting a survey by the Downtown BID to assess the commercial need of residents and those that visit or work in Downtown LA. I would strongly recommend everyone to take a few minutes and include their input at the end.

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 12:08 PM
4
Damien Goodmon writes:

A few questions:

What exactly are the broad and specific problems that have led to the million square feet of vacancy? And how is this the solution? Indeed, what exactly is the desired solution?

And here's just my naivete talking (you know my ridiculous expectations that government have a purpose): why aren't all projects placed in some type of system to ensure "that applicants are dealing with the proper departments and moving forward efficiently?"

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 12:57 PM
5
Eric Richardson writes:

Damien: Broadway was a street lined with department stores. In the first half of the 1900s, people from all over L.A. came Downtown to do their shopping, and Broadway was the heart of that. The suburbanization of L.A. led to dispersed shopping, which eventually led those stores to move or close. L.A. also used to have a number of locally-based department stores, which eventually merged or were bought out. That led to the current glut of empty space.

As for case management, it's a system designed to keep complex applications from getting bogged down. The city's permit and review processes in general, though, are widely regarded as ridiculous.

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 01:22 PM
6
Scott Mercer writes:

Bottom line: These are great old buildings and they should be used instead of sitting empty and idle apart from the ground floors.

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 09:46 PM
7
Damien Goodmon writes:

Thanks Eric for the response. I'm familiar with the history of Broadway and Downtown in general.

My inquiry is process-related. Specifically, what is the problem with the properties/process/zoning/etc. that this task force is to solve? And exactly what is the end goal?

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 10:14 PM
8
Downtowner writes:

Damian,

You can read the actual motion here:

http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=08-2868

It lays out the problems and proposed solutions pretty well.

# on Nov.06.2008 AT 10:33 PM
9
brady westwater writes:

The problem is that once a building has had its upper floors vacated, to reopen them as commercial or retail spaces, one has to meet the same buildings codes as one does if one were to building a new building. Hence - they all sit empty since that is not financially possible- or can only be done by destroying the historic nature of the buildings. That is why the upper floors of so many historic buildings have been removed in the past. So this task force is going to determine how historic buildings can meet our needs for safety while keeping the historic features of these buildings intact.

# on Nov.07.2008 AT 10:20 AM

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