Dark clouds are gathering over downtown plan.Dark clouds dark cloud See absorption nebula. are gathering over downtown plan Hoopla hoop·la n. Informal 1. a. Boisterous, jovial commotion or excitement. b. Extravagant publicity: The new sedan was introduced to the public with much hoopla. 2. exploded last week over what was reportedly the final Los Angeles City Council  The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. approval of the Central City West Specific Plan,
which sets down development limits for a 465-acre area adjacent to
downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or .
Glowing reports rolled off the presses of several local newspapers about the "innovative, remarkable" plan, which has been four years in the making. Central City West residents, property owners and government officials took turns accepting credit and heaping praise on each other. But a closer look revealed dark clouds forming on Central City West's horizon, and those clouds could soon eclipse last week's brief sunshine. The first dark cloud: The City Council has not approved the Central City West Specific Plan, as was reported in the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). and other local publications last week. The council, in fact, is not scheduled to consider the plan until Feb. 13. Second dark cloud: Several prominent members of the local development community lashed out last week at what they called unjust provisions in the Central City West Specific Plan. They claimed the plan is the most recent and most egregious e·gre·gious adj. Conspicuously bad or offensive. See Synonyms at flagrant. [From Latin example of an increasing trend toward forcing developers to shoulder more than their fair share of the cost for correcting social ills. Third black cloud: Reports surfaced last week that Central City West could be on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of losing one of only two major corporate tenants now headquartered there. Worse, if that tenant (Coopers & Lybrand) does move, it could put one of the area's three approved commercial projects in serious jeopardy. Coopers & Lybrand, a national accounting firm, has just hired the investment banking firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co. to help it find about 200,000 square feet of office space in the downtown Los Angeles area for a term of 15 years, industry sources revealed last week. Such a lease would be valued at between $75 million and $100 million, quite a prize in today's slow market. Coopers & Lybrand for years has occupied a 65-year-old building on a sizable property in Central City West. That property is bordered by Sixth Street, Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for H. Gaylord Wilshire (1861-1927), an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. , the Harbor (110) Freeway and St. Paul St. Paul as a missionary he fearlessly confronts the “perils of waters, of robbers, in the city, in the wilderness.” [N.T.: II Cor. 11:26] See : Bravery Avenue. Coopers & Lybrand sold that property in 1987 to Platt Commercial Enterprises of Marina del Rey Del Rey may refer to:
Platt has had elaborate plans drawn up by noted architect Helmut Jahn Helmut Jahn (b. January 4, 1940) is a German-American architect, designer of dozens of major buildings throughout the world. Some of the better known among his creations are the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt and the to build a $125 million, 33-story office tower on the property. Platt's new tower would be built on what is now a surface parking lot directly behind Coopers & Lybrand's existing building. Coopers & Lybrand agreed to become the anchor tenant for Platt's new office tower once it was completed, if Platt met certain conditions. The existing building would then be demolished and replaced with an open-air plaza, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the original agreement. Platt, however, has had trouble meeting the time limits of that original agreement. Coopers & Lybrand has granted several extensions to allow the developer extra time to get its city permits and financing in place. Platt's city approvals did come through a few months ago, but a willing financier still has not materialized. Rick Platt, president of Platt Commercial Enterprises, insisted last week that Coopers & Lybrand is still under contract to stay on the property as its new anchor tenant, and as a limited partner in the new tower. "We have a 15-year leasehold (on Coopers & Lybrand) and a partnership agreement that goes substantially beyond that," Platt insisted. He would not disclose the expiration date Expiration Date The day on which an options or futures contract is no longer valid and, therefore, ceases to exist. Notes: The expiration date for all listed stock options in the U.S. of Coopers & Lybrand's latest extension. He instead speculated that Goldman, Sachs is merely soliciting tenant relocation business from major corporate tenants, such as Coopers & Lybrand, as a way of propping up their sagging mergers-and-acquisitions operations. "A lot of people in investment banking today are pushing hard to generate (brokerage) fees through representing major tenants because financing is unavailable for their M&A business," he said. "If you press hard, I think you'll find that Coopers & Lybrand has not hired Goldman, Sachs." Michael McRoskey, head of Goldman, Sach's brokerage unit, chuckled when hearing Platt's speculation. But he refused to comment, and referred all calls to Coopers & Lybrand's New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of headquarters. Albert Thiess Jr., managing partner of Coopers & Lybrand's local office, refused to comment for this article, and officials at the firm's New York offices were unavailable as of press time. Meanwhile, directly across Sixth Street, Central City West's only other major corporate tenant, Unocal Corp., could soon be pulling up stakes as well. That company has hired Cushman Realty Corp. to help it find a new corporate headquarters. In a scenario incredibly similar to that of Coopers & Lybrand, Unocal sold its Central City West headquarters property in December 1988 to Newport Beach-based developer Hillman Hillman was a famous British automobile marque, manufactured by the Rootes Group. It was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England, from 1907 to 1976. Before 1907 the company had built bicycles. Properties. Hillman, in partnership with Smith & Hricik, planned to build a new office tower on the property on what is now surface parking. Unocal would then move into Hillman's new tower and the existing Unocal building would be demolished. But Unocal is under no contractual obligation to lease space in Hillman's proposed tower, and may very well lease space in one or more of several other new towers now under construction in downtown's Central Business District. Buildings reported to be among those being seriously considered by both Unocal and Coopers & Lybrand include California Plaza The name California Plaza may refer to one of the following locations in Los Angeles:
Meanwhile, the Central City West Specific Plan is indeed expected to be approved by the City Council Feb. 14. But developers questioned how anyone could make a profit under the plans stringent provisions. The plan, if approved, will be the first specific plan in L.A. history to impose "housing linkage fees" on commercial developers. The developers will be forced to pay $4.20 in housing linkage fees for each square foot of commercial space they build in Central City West. But developers complained last week that the city has not yet set up any mechanism to keep track of how and where that money is spent. |
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