http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2007/04/02/news/news02.txt
Main Street Makeover
Crime Crackdown and New Businesses Are Changing One of Downtown's
Roughest Strips
by Kathleen Nye Flynn
Take a walk on Main Street between Fourth and Seventh and the most
remarkable thing is what's no longer there: Mostly gone are the
loitering crowds, the drug dealers and the addicts looking to buy.
Gilad Lumer plans to open three retail spaces on the ground level of a
Main Street parking structure. A recent clean-up between Fourth and
Seventh streets has led to a flurry of construction. Photo by Gary
Leonard.
Instead, last Monday morning, the street was lively with area workers
and dotted with construction crews. While it's no Beverly Hills, or
even Bunker Hill, a cleaned-up Main Street has been an increasingly
common sight in recent months, following an LAPD and City Attorney
crackdown on crime in the area.
Now, there are even signs of financial investment in what has
historically been one of Downtown's roughest strips.
The trend is helping connect two emerging residential hubs: the Old
Bank District at Fourth and Main streets, and the buildings on either
side of Sixth Street.
For decades, the area teemed with drug dealers, gangs and crime. Even
as other neighborhoods in Downtown Los Angeles grew safer and
pedestrian-friendly, the Main Street strip - at the western edge of
Skid Row - was known as a place to buy heroin.
Recently, the LAPD brought down the Fifth and Hill gang, which had
used Main Street as a drug bazaar for nearly 30 years. Since then,
crime has remained low in the area, according to Central Division
officials.
Now, the most apparent activity on the street is the abundance of
construction. While some area homeless remain, the dealers have
generally been chased out.
"People may not realize how many changes are going on here, but three-
quarters of these new projects are already well under construction,"
said Russell Brown, president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood
Council. "There's a lot of stuff happening here and it's going along
very quickly."
Building on the Old Bank
The Fourth and Main hub began in 2000, when developer Tom Gilmore
opened his first apartment complex, the San Fernando Lofts. Two other
apartment buildings and Pete's Caf=E9 followed.
In ensuing years, a collection of art galleries sprung up around Fifth
and Main streets. Additionally, a group of retailers and restaurants
opened south of Gilmore's apartment complexes: Old Bank DVD, the
Stella Dottir clothing boutique, Vietnamese restaurant Blossom and
Metropolis Books joined Banquette cafe and the Old Bank District
Market. Blossom and the market are currently expanding.
However, the momentum stopped at Fifth and Main. The corner was home
to a food market called Alina's Place and an adult bookstore. Drug
dealers held court in front of the buildings and people loitered on
the sidewalk.
Last July, the Central Division's narcotics unit raided Alina's and
found drugs and stolen merchandise. Now the space is being
transformed. A construction worker at the former Alina's last week
said a new restaurant, with an outdoor patio, is almost complete. The
property owner, who also owned the market and adult bookstore, could
not be reached for comment.
The City Attorney's office has also targeted Main Street businesses
where the owners allegedly turned a blind eye to drug dealing and
prostitution. In February, the office filed charges against Craby
Joe's bar and Mr. Fish restaurant, located at Seventh and Main
streets.
Mixed Neighborhood
The makeup of Main has long been diversified by the block between
Fifth and Sixth streets, which bustles with social service
organizations such as Chrysalis and the Weingart Center, as well as
several single room occupancy hotels.
Here, too, entrepreneurs are eyeing business op****tunities. Monica
May, owner of Banquette, has tentative plans to transform a taco stand
at 524 S. Main St. into a diner in the vein of Swingers. She said she
hopes to debut in four to six months, seat 50 people and stay open
late into the night.
On the west side of the street, the owner of a parking garage is also
creating retail. On the ground floor of the parking structure, a 3,500-
square-foot building will hold up to three commercial businesses, said
Gilad Lumer, Los Angeles regional manager of Five Star parking.
Although the lot was always outfitted for ground-floor retail, Lumer
said that the company waited for the right time to utilize the space.
"When we started this whole project we had at any given hour a handful
or dozens of homeless people gathered in front of the lot, which
doesn't help in getting tenants. Now that has disappeared," he said.
Lumer has hired a broker to fill the spaces, which will be complete in
about a month, and said he is looking at both national retailers as
well as independent start-ups. In addition to the retail, Lumer said
he plans to paint the parking garage; the garish turquoise will give
way to a modern mix of gray and burgundy. He said he is looking for
public funds to replace a faded mural on the side of the garage.
The area clean up could create a walkable path between the Old Bank
District and Sixth and Main streets, where two major housing complexes
are also building new retail and restaurant outlets.
The Santa Fe Lofts, a market-rate condominium building on the
northwest corner, is currently awaiting permits for a restaurant, bar,
gallery, cafe and a barbershop. The restaurant will face Main Street.
On the southwest corner, the ground-floor retail of the 314-apartment
Pacific Electric Lofts will open within six months, said Elizabeth
Peterson, CEO of EPG Entertainment Services. That development will
include a fine-dining restaurant and a gourmet grocer, she said.
Also on the ground floor, facing either Sixth or Los Angeles Street,
will be two cafes, service stores and The Association, a jazz club run
by the team responsible for The Room in Hollywood and Little Temple in
Silver Lake. The building's original bar, Coles, will reopen, operated
by 213 Ventures.
"The area between Sixth and Fourth and Spring and Main streets is
going to be the most densely populated place in Downtown so far," said
Alex Moradi, managing partner at ICO Development, which developed the
Pacific Electric Lofts. "Ultimately, it's going to be Main Street USA
with an artsy twist to it."
Alternative to L.A. Live
The law enforcement crackdown coincides with a recent city grant that
allocated $100,000 for street lighting. Another $250,000 will add
trees and planters to Main Street within six months.
All told, the street is changing quickly. Business owners who once
battled it out in an underserved area now are seeing a new clientele.
"We moved in here two and a half years ago, and were chasing people
from smoking crack in front of our door," said May of Banquette.
"Yesterday, I stood outside and watched a guy walk by with two dogs
and a baby stroller. This neighborhood is completely changed."
However, some are wary that the fix could be tem****ary. They say that
if the police ever stop their heightened patrols, the dense homeless
population will return to the area for the available services, and the
drug dealers would soon follow.
"There are now fewer people on the streets and I barely ever see drug
deals any more," said Adlai Wertman, CEO of Chrysalis, an agency that
helps the formerly homeless re-enter the work force. "The question is,
when will they return? I have every reason to believe they are going
to come back."
Brady Westwater, vice president of DLANC, said that Main Street's
mixture of homeless services and several permanent sup****tive housing
facilities, along with low-income units at the Rosslyn Hotel at Fifth
and Main streets, will keep the neighborhood diverse.
He added that the economic variety will make Main Street an
alternative to Downtown mega-projects like L.A. Live and the Grand
Avenue development that will bring expensive eateries and high-end
stores.
"Main Street is going to become Main Street by having a little of
everything on it," Westwater said. "There will be residential service
stores that appeal to everybody of all price ranges. It's always going
to have the mix of businesses on it, and it is a healthy, organic mix."
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