Downtown Stakeholders Air Views on Mall Redevelopment

By Jorge Casuso

February 11 -- When redeveloping Santa Monica Place, consider scrapping the roof-top park, don’t be afraid of housing and don’t draw a line between the private site and its public surroundings.

Those were some of the initial thoughts members of the Bayside District Land Use and Asset Committee tossed around during a meeting with the owners of the struggling indoor mall Tuesday morning.

The meeting was the first since the City Council voted last month to begin negotiations to redevelop Santa Monica Place and asked mall officials to scrap the proposed plan -- which called for an outdoor shopping venue topped with three 21-story condo towers, an apartment building and an office complex -- and start from scratch.

Officials of Macerich, which owns the 24-year-old mall design by Frank Gehry, signaled a fresh start by only showing black and white site maps of the area. But what starting from scratch will mean when community meetings start early next month seemed unclear.

“Are we really starting at a blank slate, or are we pretty far in the process?” asked committee member John Warfel. “Is the idea to get the design and then figure out how to pay for it, or are there economic parameters?”

“There are certain parameters, both physical and commercial,” responded Randy Brant, Macerich’s senior vice president for development and leasing. “We made it clear to the council the residential was a very important component.

“If the public says there can be no residential, then we have no project unless there is another way to pay for it,” Brant said.

Committee Chair Johannes Van Tilburg, an architect called “Dr. Density” by his students, advised Macerich to push for as much housing as possible.

“I think without residential, it ain’t gonna happen,” Van Tilburg said. “I think it’s absolutely vital for the Promenade. We have this story about the Promenade, (that it’s) mixed-use.

“Focus on the housing,” Van Tilburg said. “There’s an opportunity here to finish one piece of the Promenade, that’s housing.”

Another topic of discussion was the two-acre park perched above Second Street that was a cornerstone of the scrapped plan. The park -- which would include trees and “water features,” as well as restaurants and food courts -- was greeted with skepticism by some Bayside officials.

“I think that a park on that valuable corner is not a reasonable place,” said committee member Patricia Hoffman. “There is nothing about that park that energizes that corner.”

“It’s a total waste of time on that park,” Van Tilburg said. “My opinion is it’s not going to happen.”

“In downtown LA there are big unused spaces,” Warfel said. “Downtown LA is full of these things.”

But others argued that the park added value to the site.

“You can’t have condos looking down on a roof,” said Bayside consultant Robert O. York. “It’s either a softscape or a hardscape.”

Macerich officials defended the proposed park, which would be accessible to the public from ground level by elevators, escalators and stairs.

“There are many examples of elevated parks that are very successful,” Brant said, citing the park above the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco..

Some Bayside officials worried that the park -- and indeed the entire 10-acre mall site -- would not be a truly public space because it is on private land and that, as a result, Macerich would be able to control who can visit or which street entertainers can perform there.

“If we are going to have a fourth block (of the Promenade), I don’t want you to have a distinction when you cross the street and this is private,” said committee member Bill Tucker, who is the chair of the bayside District Board.

“I don’t want it managed the way it is today,” Tucker said. “We want it to be a public street, not another Grove,” he said referring to the new shopping venue on Fairfax Avenue. “It offends me that you are copying our success and manage it like a private street.”

Although during initial talks two years ago, City and mall officials agreed extending the thriving commercial strip an extra block would boost shopping and bring foot traffic to the Civic Center and pier, at least one Bayside official expressed reservations.

Committee member Patricia Hoffman questioned the value of extending the street thriving commercial strip, noting it would wind up at Sears, which would eliminate any possibility of a view corridor.

By the end of the two hour meeting, some Bayside officials were still grappling with the issue of a starting point.

“I’m still trying to get my hands around it,” Warfel said. “What are the parameters. What if that fourth block isn’t a given?”

“The parameters are we would like to make changes,” Brant said. “Let’s come up with a plan that works for Macerich and works for the city.”