Joint plan sought for Wilshire Center, Koreatown.

Districts may be designated as a redevelopment zone

Wilshire Center and Koreatown are rarely perceived to have much in common in the minds of most Angelenos. Wilshire Center maintains a corporate image, home to high-rise office buildings and not much else. Koreatown, on the other hand, is a hodge-podge of small retail shops and restaurants.

So how is it that the Community Redevelopment Agency and the Los Angeles City Council came to decide to combine the areas for a possible redevelopment zone? Well, initially they didn't. Community groups representing both Koreatown and Wilshire Center made proposals to the CRA after last year's riot to study the potential for redevelopment in the area. When it was discovered that the geographical boundaries for the study areas proposed by the two groups overlapped, the CRA decided to bring the two groups together to conduct a study about how to revitalize the economy of the combined area.

Now that both groups are working as a team, they are discovering that they have more in common than just geography.

"What is happening is that, as we are having more meetings, we are finding that there are more concerns that are common to both Koreatown and Wilshire Center," said Cooke Sunoo, project manager with the CRA. "They are beginning to feel that the future health of Wilshire Center and Koreatown are inextricably linked."

Sunoo explained that office jobs on Wilshire Boulevard provide customers for many of the small businesses in the area. The small businesses, in turn, provide jobs for area residents.

Among the concerns that are now being addressed are access to the area, congestion in and around the region, public transportation, cleanliness and safety.

The 11-member committee, which was formed in early September, hopes to have a comprehensive environmental impact study of the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area completed within 12 months. Two consulting firms, Katz Hollis and Keyser Marston, have been hired to undertake the study.

A total of $4.5 million has been allotted for consulting firms to study riot-recovery programs. The Wilshire Center/Koreatown Community study will be only one of those studies. It is expected that the Wilshire Center/Koreatown study will be completed after similar studies are completed for the Crenshaw and Broadway/Manchester areas.

The Wilshire Center/Koreatown study zone is a 1,720-acre area that is roughly bounded by Third Street on the north, 12th Street on the south, Hoover Street on the east and Western Avenue and Wilton Place on the west. It also includes the Vermont corridor.

Within this project zone fall two major public works projects -- the Metro Rail Red Line and the Wilshire Stakeholders' "streetscape" improvements. But those major projects are not expected to be affected by the results of the study being conducted by the Wilshire Center/Koreatown Community Advisory Committee.

The naming of a committee to discuss the mutual needs of two districts signals a recognition on the part of the CRA, City Council, Wilshire Center and Koreatown business and property owners, and residents that they all do have interests in common, and that those needs should be addressed simultaneously.

These districts were among the hardest hit by the riots of 1992. Koreatown's commercial center was ravaged by looters and suffered much structural damage due to fires. Many Koreatown businesses were destroyed and have yet to be rebuilt. And those still operating continue to struggle because many of their former patrons have left the Koreatown area. Making matters worse is that commercial financing remains virtually unobtainable for most Koreatown business owners.

Wilshire Center's commercial district was also damaged by the riot and its aftermath. The damage there has been of a different sort, however. While direct riot-related damages were less severe in Wilshire Center than in Koreatown, Wilshire Center has probably suffered more from the riot's aftermath. The deteriorating image of the area has led to an exodus of office and retail tenants. Several prime properties have been sitting idle in the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area, including sites of historical significance, such as the Ambassador Hotel and the Sheraton Towne House hotel.

Barbara Hoff, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy, said that the City Council's decision to look at options for revitalizing the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area may mean good news for the historic buildings there. Any party interested in buying historic buildings in the area would appreciate knowing that the city is considering doing something to upgrade the neighborhood, she said.

Richard McDermott, co-chairman of the Wilshire Center/Koreatown Community Advisory Committee and an architect with the Wilshire Center-based firm Daniel Mann Johnson & Mendenhall, said that the first task of the committee is to identify the common interests held by Koreatown's small businesses and the larger corporate tenants that populate Wilshire Center. Then ideas about what would mutually benefit both groups would be discussed.

Basically, two financing options are feasible for revitalizing the area, Sunoo said. The area could be considered for community development through loan programs administered by the Community Development Department, or it could be declared a redevelopment project area, in which case it would be eligible to receive CRA funding.