|
| Los
Angeles Area Real Estate continues to sizzle. Do you need an
agent? >> Click here |
|
Home:
>>
Southern California Business
|
|
Monday, August 30, 2004
Is the Grand Avenue redevelopment project good for Los Angeles?
|
|
A couple of new projects have been announced to revitalize downtown LA. One plan is a $1.2 billion project to add significant retail, residential and commercial space to the Bunker Hill area. With the addition of the new
Disney
Hall, as well as the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion and the new Cathedral, some think the area needs more ‘stickiness’.
‘Stickiness’ is a marketing term typically reserved for Internet pages that attract lots of traffic. The idea goes, once you have them, what do you with them? You don’t want them to just leave, you want to make the pages sticky – add additional options and choices. If you can’t sell your visitors something, maybe a partner can.
Obviously, Disney Hall and the Dorothy Chandler provide an opportunity for lots of traffic, but it isn’t regular traffic. So, is the area worthy of that kind of development? Does it need more stickiness? Just down the street both the California Plaza and the Wells Fargo Center offer a number of restaurants for the Theatre crowd.
Of course, the Superior Court also offers regular foot traffic. Anyone having served jury duty at LA Superior knows there is nothing to do in the near vicinity. This alone, might offer enough foot traffic to keep the area bustling. Plus all the lawyers – the
California Plaza and the
Wells Fargo Center are full of them - always need additional food options and places to entertain.
Still, in order for the project to proceed, tax dollars will be probably required, but does the current economy justify this kind of expenditure? While the development will provide jobs, wouldn’t tax dollars be better utilized for better infrastructure? In a city already plagued by snarling traffic, won’t this just add to the gridlock?
While the Metro does get near the area, the Metro doesn’t connect enough users to the area – if it did, such a redevelopment project would be a no-brainer, as would all downtown development. Imagine downtown as being the Hub of a well connected Metro
rail – connected to the Valley, to Orange County, to Santa Monica.
Yes, the Bunker Hill Theatre district does need more retail and commercial space, but private venture needs to foot the bill. In California’s current deficit crisis, only infrastructure should be seen as a worthy expenditure of tax dollars.
Comment
on this article / Blog
|
|
|