Developers pin hopes for revival of Crenshaw district on multiplex.

A 12-screen multiplex theater on Crenshaw Boulevard is the latest sign of revitalization on the corridor that historically has been the heart of the African-American community in Los Angeles. Developers hope the multiplex can bring the pedestrian traffic to Crenshaw that similar cineplexes have bought to Santa Monica, Century City and Universal City.

The choice of locations is not accidental for the 56,900-square-foot, 3,700-sea project, which is a joint venture of Magic Johnson Theaters and Sony Pictures, according to Magic Johnson Theaters President Ken Lombard.

"We feel that the community not only has wanted a theater, but has deserved a theater for some time. So we are doing everything to expedite the schedule," he said. The Magic Johnson multiplex, which is scheduled to start construction in January and be completed in May, is targeted for a parcel near the mall on land leased from mall developer, Alexander Haagen Co.

Crenshaw Boulevard is important to the African-American community, according to Michaele Pride-Wells, a Los Angeles architect involved in a neighborhood-based planning effort for the area. The street, she said, is "one of the last communities which is predominantly African-American, and contains some of the most affluent, and some of the poorest, neighborhoods."

Crenshaw is "the last stronghold of African-American ownership of homes and businesses" in the city, added William J. Price, project director of the Crenshaw Plaza Redevelopment Area for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.

Pride-Wells challenged the popular image of Crenshaw as crime-ridden and underprivileged. "Actually, the income level is quite high, the neighborhoods are stable, many of the residents are highly educated and there's a lot of home ownership," she said.

Crenshaw's problems date back to the early 1960s, when the Santa Monica (10) Freeway cut through the area and degraded property values. A worse problem was the aftermath of the Watts riots, which did not affect Crenshaw directly, but left the area redlined by insurers and ignored by commercial lenders. Piecemeal destruction of parts of the boulevard in the April 1992 civil disturbances was another blow.

A possible turning point for the area was the completion of the Crenshaw Plaza Mall in 1989, as well as the completion of a Lucky supermarket, the first in th area in 25 years. The mall and supermarket stand on a redevelopment site assembled by the CRA. Fred Bruning, Alexander Haagen Co. vice president, said the mall has boosted local property values by $1 billion.

The mall has not been a total success, however. With a 25-percent vacancy factor, it has yet to be profitable. Pride-Wells said she is concerned the mall's weak performance might discourage some retailers from entering the area.

The mall has also been the center of a dispute with the CRA that, for a while, threatened to block negotiations for the Magic Johnson Theaters. Last year, Haagen sold the mall to a real estate investment trust that his company controls. In the original development agreement, the redevelopment agency is entitled to 50 percent of profits on the sale.

Haagen contended the mall was sold at a $20 million loss, and the agency was entitled to nothing. In May, Haagen and the CRA reached an agreement that would give the agency some profit sharing in the future.

One developer who appears encouraged by the mall, however, is Michael Anderson. In a joint venture with The Leslie Co., led by ex-Metropolitan Structures President Nyal Leslie, Anderson plans to develop a five-story, 100,000-square-foot medical office building on a site directly southwest of the mall.

Anderson said he hopes to prelease 85 percent of the building to the U.S. General Services Administration for its Military Enlistment Group. He hopes to also lease a portion to the Managed Care Group, a physicians' group affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The developers are looking for financing.

On a related front, Anderson is pursuing his Crenshaw Economic Development Project, which includes plans to plant 100 palm trees on the boulevard between Vernon Avenue and Rodeo Road. He also intends to build six single-family homes, financed by the Los Angeles Housing Department, on the site of a liquor store destroyed in April 1992.

Pride-Wells' group, the Crenshaw Cluster, a division of the Coalition of Neighborhood Developers, would like to see a host of new uses on Crenshaw, including medical offices, youth services, senior housing, as well as corporate "back office" clerical operations, and a branch of UCLA Extension.

Funded by the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a non-profit group, and the city Community Development Department, Pride-Wells and her co-workers are drawing up an advisory master plan for the area. The group's work was recently shown at th "Urban Realms" show at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Despite those proposals, Crenshaw still needs help, according to CRA's Price. Although the Crenshaw Plaza Mall was "the starting point," the mall has not yet helped the area "to the extent that we hoped it might," Price said. Now the redevelopment agency plans to expand its efforts to the aging Santa Barbara Plaza west of the mall and the Leimert Park area.

"I think we are over the hump now," said the CRA project director. "Now we are really starting to roll, and we think the area will now pick up."