Downtown Land Swap Key to New Caltrans Building.

THE state of California and city of Los Angles are mulling a land swap that would pave the way for the California Department of Transportation to build a new headquarters in Downtown L.A.

The proposed deal involves adjacent blocks between First and Second streets bounded on the east by Los Angeles Street and to the west by Spring Street.

Caltrans wants to move from its present digs at 120 5. Spring St. into a proposed 603,500-square-foot building in the block immediately to the east. That block is one-third occupied by a strip of commercial operations fronting First Street and two-thirds covered with a Caltrans parking structure.

The new headquarters building would allow Caltrans to consolidate 1,800 employees now crowded into its two-building District 7 operation as well as potentially house The offices of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Bringing LADOT into the scenario would require building another 112,700 square feet.

"Caltrans, because of its growth, has high density in the old building, (which) is not up to code," said Bob Sleppy, chief of the environmental services section of the real estate services division of the state Department of General Services.

Under the Caltrans proposal, the city would acquire the privately-owned commercial properties on the site and exchange them for the present Caltrans headquarters site. That would give Caltrans the whole block in which to build its new building, which would include 932 spaces of multilevel, structured parking. If the state builds the larger building to accommodate LADOT, the parking would be bumped up to 1,140 spaces.

The city, in turn, would tear down the present Caltrans building and use the open space as part of a proposed Civic Plaza.

The dollar value of the swap could not immediately be determined.

Sleppy said the project is contingent on the state budget passing later this month and the city's approval of the land swap. If all is approved, construction would begin in the first quarter of 2002 and the building could be ready for occupancy by 2004.

Caltrans could move ahead and build its own HQ without the land swap, but prefers some room to breathe, Sleppy said. "It would be a nicer and better project if we could build on that First Street frontage," he said.

An Environmental Impact Report regarding the project is available for public review and comment through Aug. 20. A public hearing on the project is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m., Aug. 1 at the Junipero Serra state office building at 320 W. Fourth St.