STAPLES INFLUENCE; NEARBY BUSINESSES ANTICIPATE BOOST.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

As workers run final checks on the sparkling new Staples Center rising from its faded neighborhood, downtown business owners are hoping it will pull them up with it.

Amid storefronts that remain barred and barricaded, even at midday, a small collection of establishments has endured recession and riots. Their proprietors are looking forward to the inevitable boost in customers and cash they believe the arena will bring them all when it opens later this month.

``It's brought everybody some luck. We had no idea when we got this place,'' said Eddie Ojeda, 18, who helps his father run his namesake, Fernando's Taco Inn, as an assistant manager.

``There's plenty for everybody,'' he said. ``We hope it will help all of us.''

Workers are completing construction and testing systems in preparation for the center's Oct. 16 grand opening, featuring a blessing, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a street festival.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will provide the center's musical inauguration Oct. 17.

The Staples Center looms directly across Olympic Boulevard from the 7-year-old Taco Inn, and Ojeda said his father plans to stay open until 11 p.m. on event nights to catch patrons heading to or from the arena.

When he heard about the center opening, ``I was excited,'' he said, ``especially because I'm a Laker fan.

``Before, this was like a red-light district. That's why we wouldn't stay open late,'' he said. ``It's great. It's going to give us an opportunity.''

In fact, the restaurant has already seen a rise in business, thanks to the construction crew.

``They come here every morning, then they come back for lunch,'' Ojeda said. ``They help us out a lot.''

Kathy Schloessman, president of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission, lived in Denver when the Colorado Rockies baseball team opened its Coors Field in 1995, creating a rebirth for that city's downtown.

Cleveland and Baltimore enjoyed similar phenomena with new baseball parks, and Schloessman said the effect should be even more pronounced with the Staples Center, which will host one hockey and two basketball teams, plus concerts and other events - about 250 per year.

``People have seen nothing yet in terms of what's going to happen. It's just a home run for our city,'' she said. ``A lot of people want to take a wait-and-see attitude. But I definitely believe that area is going to pick up.''

The neighborhood has already begun a dramatic change, according to Monte Peterson, general manager of the Downtown Car Wash, an Olympic Boulevard fixture for 40 years.

``The prostitution, the gangs - most of that is gone,'' he said. ``We lost a grocery store, a camera shop, a car rental agency. We're hoping a new generation of businesses will come in.''

That will happen - but not overnight, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

``People hope all of a sudden there's going to be a boom in the area, but the dust has got to shake out,'' he said. ``It's going to draw crowds of people down there. The key question is, Will they linger?''

He said business owners and developers are banking on it, with plans for new restaurants and residential units throughout the downtown core. And Schloessman said the critical mass of home and entertainment options will lure businesses looking for office space, thus cutting into the area's commercial vacancies and boosting property-tax income for the city.

Kyser said the Staples Center is ``going to be a key ingredient in the rebirth of downtown,'' and is just part of an ongoing $900 million investment in the central city, which also includes the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Los Angeles Center Studios.

Schloessman said the Staples Center has booked the Grammy Awards ceremony for 2000, and Kyser said just one event like that can pump $20 million into the Clocal economy, in things such as hotel and restaurant patronage.

Stephen La Bella, owner of La Bella Cucina on Figueroa Street, said he's looking forward to a new set of customers and will change his menu to cater more toward families and event patrons than the lunchtime business crowd he now serves.

The Woodland Hills resident is also hoping to offer a full bar, and has plans for live jazz and sidewalk dining - quite a change from the situation he found when he moved to the neighborhood 12 years ago, after giving up his successful Nick's Fish Market in Beverly Hills.

``Everybody told me I was crazy when I was moving downtown. But I was going to roll the dice,'' La Bella said. ``It's safer. This is prime property now. I believe it's going to happen.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Work is almost finished on the Staples Center; the grand opening is set for Oct. 16.

(2) Stephen La Bella, owner of La Bella Cucina restaurant was told he was crazy for wanting to open an eatery in downtown Los Angeles.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer