NOHO RISING BUILDING BOOM SENDS BLIGHT PACKING DEVELOPMENT AIMS TO REINVENT VALLEY COMMUNITY.

Byline: BETH BARRETT Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Money and concrete are rapidly replacing a generation of talk and expectations in this wannabe artsy community, long the stepchild of downtown Los Angeles and star-studded Hollywood.

The buzz has escalated with NoHo Commons -- a $200 million complex of lofts, apartments and shops at the core of the Arts District -- and with the new NoHo Tower, a 15-story condo and retail project along Lankershim Boulevard.

But now, within the next month, work will begin on what is expected to be the area's signature project: development of up to 2 million square feet in a commercial-retail-residential mix worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The lynchpin development, on 16.5 acres owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, would be the largest in NoHo and includes the possibility of a business park for nearby entertainment companies, live theaters to complement the existing arts community, open space and streetscape, a refurbished historic train depot, about 400 new apartments and extensive retail and commercial projects.

``I think (the MTA property) has really the possibility of creating a town center (in NoHo) where there is none,'' said Roger Moliere, MTA executive officer of real property management and development.

``It will spur economic development like crazy. People can live and work and shop there.''

Moliere said that as NoHo Commons has emerged with Community Redevelopment Agency assistance, and other residential and commercial projects have gotten under way, the community has reached ``critical mass.''

Since 2001, Community Redevelopment Agency spending in the NoHo redevelopment area -- which includes the MTA property -- has soared sevenfold to $35 million, the most of any redevelopment area in the city.

In return, rising property values driven by projects in the area are expected to generate an additional $50 million for redevelopment over the next five years.

``This was an optimal time,'' Moliere said of efforts to develop the MTA property. ``I looked at it and said, `Let's hit this one ... hit while the iron's hot.'''

Moliere said selection of a development team for the MTA property is expected to begin within 30 days with a request for qualifications. Finalists will then be asked to submit full proposals.

Development of what now is a parking lot and largely vacant land could begin in about two years.

The land would be leased to the developer, and the MTA might also negotiate a percent of the project's gains.

County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents NoHo and as an MTA commissioner led efforts to block plans for apartment complexes on the property, said the site's location near the subway and Orange Line busway have boosted its development potential.

``There's no other site in Los Angeles today at the convergence of two transit lines that offers this opportunity,'' Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky is holding out for a top-notch development that would act as a magnet for the area.

``We have to take a long, 50-year view. ... This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we can pick and choose when the lifetime begins,'' he said.

Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the project, said the convergence of the subway and busway could boost the East Valley much like the four-level freeway interchange boosted downtown in the 1950s.

LaBonge said he would like to see more residential units as well as retail and commercial, and restoration of an old train depot on the site.

``These are the last key parcels,'' LaBonge said of the MTA property. ``We have to make sure we do the right thing and balance the proper development and density.''

Bruce Ackerman, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of San Fernando Valley and a CRA commissioner, said his biggest concern is that the MTA property might be leased mainly for residential development.

``If housing is too attractive, it could get the nod over commercial, and we don't want to see that. (There needs to be) some mixed use,'' he said.

About 1,500 residential units currently are under construction in NoHo, with about 100,000 square feet of mixed-use and commercial properties under way.

For the MTA site, Ackerman said, he already knows of several interested developers. And Moliere said he also knows of several large development companies that would be lured by the unusually large size of the property in an area ripe for growth.

Rick Caruso, CEO of Caruso Affiliated, a major developer who completed The Grove in Los Angeles, said he wasn't familiar with the MTA property but has heard about NoHo's growth.

That's prompted Caruso, who previously has passed on development opportunities in the area because of crime and other concerns, to say he's ready to take another look.

``You've got a lot of density out there. If people are focused on it and there's new housing going in ... (when) there's a lot of energy and focus it's worth looking at it.''

Yaroslavsky said such interest is a ``good barometer'' that the NoHo development landscape has changed even as the giant downtown redevelopment areas are winding down.

The Central Business District, for example, closed in 2000, freeing up more than $240 million to the county, city, schools and special districts. And the Bunker Hill redevelopment area spent just over $25 million in fiscal 2005, but mainly to retire debt on old land acquisitions.

Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom -- the architect of Burbank's economic takeoff who moved from head of the CRA, where he had pledged to jump-start NoHo, to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Deputy Mayor of Housing and Economic Development -- said development of the MTA property will define NoHo for decades.

``You couldn't assemble a site that big today,'' he said.

The largest MTA parcel -- 10.5 acres containing the subway entrance -- is bounded by Cumpston Avenue to the north, Fair Avenue on the east, Lankershim Boulevard to the west, and Chandler Boulevard on the south.

The remaining 6 acres run to Tujunga Avenue near Chandler.

Meanwhile, to the north in another redevelopment area within NoHo, plans are afoot for turning the aged Valley Plaza shopping center into a $560 million mega-mall involving developer J.H. Snyder Co.

With the backing of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, that project is envisioned to include new housing, stores and restaurants.

While some residents have concerns there will be too many apartment buildings included in the project on the nearby Laurel Plaza property, with too great an increase in traffic and other impacts, officials are watching closely.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said she wants the ``super majority'' of residential units in the development to be owned, not rented and said traffic and other impacts will be addressed.

``NoHo is an area that's blossoming,'' Greuel said, whose district includes the plaza. ``This is a project that was stagnant. ... (Now) this is a top priority.''

Sol P. Ajalat was one of those lured to the area by its promise.

Ajalat moved his law firm from Burbank to a NoHo highrise along Lankershim Boulevard about a year and a half ago to take advantage of the reasonable rent while banking on the development boom.

``The reason we moved into this building was in anticipation of all the changes,'' said Ajalat, whose offices were initially surrounded by vacant land but now are surrounded by new housing projects, a crane on the skyline and construction crews.

``What was attractive, the area was still depressed, but we knew it would go up,'' he said.

The mood in the streets has changed, too.

``Now there's an invigoration,'' he said.

Longtime resident Guy Weddington McCreary, whose family was among community founders in 1886, worked on a master plan for revitalization of the area in 1968.

McCreary said he wasn't sure he'd live to see the day when North Hollywood would boom again.

``It feels like our long-term hopes and aspirations are coming to reality. ... Right now we're at the right time, at the right place, for this vision to take place and happen.

``We're finally there. You like to see ... at least before you die, it booming as it used to be.''

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) City Councilman Tom LaBonge and Bruce Ackerman, CEO and president of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, look out over an area proposed for development in North Hollywood.

(2 -- color) Plans to redevelop the MTA-owned 10.5-acre parking lot and subway entrance near Cumpston Avenue and Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood include mixed-used development.

(3 -- color) Builders work on the lofts at NoHo Commons at Weddington Street and Lankershim Boulevard. The CRA has big redevelopment plans for this North Hollywood area.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

Map:

North Hollywood