Culver City Redevelopment Continues With OliverMcMillan
Next In
Line
Nov. 19, 1998
DDR OliverMcMillan may be developing a
200,000-square-foot mixed-use entertainment and commercial
project, Screenland, in downtown Culver City, along with
the
city's redevelopment
agency.
The nearly $40 million project will be the latest feather
in
the city agency's cap, as redevelopment activity remains
robust
in the five-square-mile city adjacent to Los Angeles.
If approved, OliverMcMillan's two-story project will
encompass
three blocks across from Sony's Imageworks
facilities, the
Culver Studios and the historic
Culver
Hotel and
will feature a 24-screen AMC theater as
its
anchor. Retail and restaurant tenants will have ground
floor
street frontage and outdoor dining and patio areas. On the
second floor will be nearly 60,000-square-feet of office
loft
space.
The firm was selected from 15 developers to construct the
project and is currently negotiating a disposition and
development agreement (DDA) with the redevelopment agency.
Most
likely the agency will sell the property to OliverMcMillan
and
will fund the construction of some of the 900 public
parking
spaces in two new municipal parking garages needed to
support
the development.
If the DDA is approved, construction on the project should
begin
in the summer or fall of 1999, to be completed within a
year.
The agency has just completed the $4.4 million Washington
Boulevard Streetscape Project, a revitalization project
that
transformed the city's eastern gateway from a blighted
commercial corridor into a unified streetscape.
The project focused on a 3/4-mile stretch of the Washington
Boulevard corridor between National Boulevard to La Cienega
Boulevard. The project combined traditional infrastructure
improvements, such as street lighting, sidewalk repair and
roadway and sewer reconstruction, with landscaping and
nontraditional design elements to create a distinct image
for
the boulevard and to strengthen its appeal for both
pedestrians
and motorists.
The project was designed by the firms Barton
Aschman,
Sussman Prejza and Campbell &
Campbell
The landmark 1940s Studio Drive-In is currently being
replaced
by 57 single family homes and a 9,000-square-foot park by a
joint-venture between developers Braemar Urban
Ventures and the Lee Group, as
well as
a new facility for the Educational Resources and
Services Center, a nonprofit educational center
for
learning-disabled children.
The first phase of the residential development should be
completed by June of 1999, while the educational center
should
be opened for the 1999-2000 school year.
Abode Realty Inc. is proposing to develop
senior congregate care housing at the city's interim City
Hall
site at Culver Boulevard and Overland Avenue, with a
possible
new senior center to be built next door. Architect for the
project is Widom Wein Cohen O'Leary
Terasawa,
with Harris & Associates as the
construction
manager.
These developments are just a continuation of the steady
flow
of projects that has marked the agency's existence since
its
creation in 1971, officials said. When the agency
celebrated its
25th anniversary, it also celebrated the completion of a
new
City Hall, a new fire station and a major reconfiguration
of its
streets.
Long-noted for housing motion picture studios,
five-square-mile Culver City ranks seventh of all
California
cities in total payroll and vendor expenditures in the
entertainment industry. The industry's per capita
expenditure is
$5,700 in Culver City, a number exceeded by only three
other
cities nationwide.
Additionally, the small city has more than 3 million square
feet of retail space, including the 140-store Fox Hills
Mall,
and more than five auto dealerships.
hebert@sddt.com
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