Retail Key to $1.2 Billion Grand Avenue Project
The centerpiece of the highly anticipated Grand Avenue Project will be a 16-acre park adjacent to Los Angeles City Hall.
But retail will also be a key ingredient to the $1.2 billion mixed-use project’s success, according to the real estate developers competing for the assignment.
The chief executive officers for the two finalists, Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. and New York–based The Related Cos., presented their visions for Grand Avenue on June 28 in the ornate boardroom of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in downtown Los Angeles. The five-member Grand Avenue Committee—composed of city, county and state officials—may decide who develops Grand Avenue on July 19.
Albert Ratner—co-chairman of the board of Forest City Enterprises, a company with $6 billion in assets—told the committee, “If you don’t have good retail and cultural assets, the project is not going to work.”
Forest City owns the Redondo Beach, Calif.–based South Bay Galleria and is building Victoria Gardens, a lifestyle center in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The company’s point man for the proposed retail project is Peter Calthorpe, principal of Berkeley, Calif.–based urban design company Calthorpe Associates.
“The retail must be street-oriented; it can’t be hermetically sealed in a mall,” Calthorpe said.
He proposed a retail plaza be built across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Stores would be constructed around the central park that spans from City Hall to the Music Center. He forecast boutiques would also occupy the ground floors of many of the project’s buildings.
Gloria Molina, the chair of the Grand Avenue Committee and a Los Angeles County supervisor, asked Ratner if the retail would be restricted to high-end boutiques. Ratner replied the retail mix would be as diverse as the development’s housing, which would range from low-income to luxury housing.
“The engine here is retail,” said Stephen Ross, chief executive officer of The Related Cos.
Ross forecast the mix of shops serving the apartment buildings and office workers walking by Grand Avenue would cater to all income levels. He offered no details on his company’s retail vision for the area, however.
The Related Cos. developed Time Warner Center in New York. —Andrew Asch
