Critics question City of L.A.'s commitment to historic core plan.

The City of Los Angeles' widely trumpeted commitment to restoring its historic downtown core on Spring Street and Broadway may have hit a sour note with the recent relocation of City Hall workers to the tony financial district on Figueroa Street.

In an apparent reversal of a strategic plan

The city's three-year lease at the 16-story twin-towers complex, located in the heart of downtown L.A.'s Class A office and hotel market, is a temporary relocation while a major renovation of City Hall is undertaken.

The move didn't go unnoticed by other city workers who have been relocated to Spring Street in past years. Nor did it escape the critical eye of business people concerned with the historic core's economic revival. Many critics of the Figueroa Plaza deal now question the city's commitment to revitalizing the virtually moribund Spring Street office corridor, which a half-century ago thrived as the city's financial center.

"I'm surprised, but not really," said Cherryl Wilson, who manages the 548 Building on Spring near Sixth Street. Wilson is president of the Spring Street Association, a building managers' group. "I've been here (in the historic core) a long time and heard a lot of promises from the city, but the place is still a trash heap."

Her attitude reflects a growing consensus among downtown office tenants and building managers who are becoming disillusioned with the pace of the city's plans for the historic core.

The city's decision to relocate City Hall workers to Figueroa Plaza rather than to a Spring Street address only reinforces a belief that a recovery for the area is still far off, Wilson said.

Sordid streets

Despite being one of the city's busiest daytime thoroughfares, Spring Street remains one of downtown's worst eyesores. Nearly a third of its more than 2 million square feet of office space in some 15 multi-story buildings does not meet the city's minimum safety codes, and many of the buildings have been partially or entirely closed for years.

Employees and visitors to the area complain about unsafe, dirty streets, poor parking conditions and platoons of panhandlers and indigents blocking the sidewalks.

Crime continues to be a problem, though recent police crackdowns are helping. But the grim perception of the historic core as a hostile environment has spurred anxious calls for action from supporters of a renewal plan.

City officials maintain that their choice of Figueroa Plaza doesn't signal that they've forsaken Spring Street's proposed redevelopment. "The decision boiled down to financial considerations and meeting city requirements," said William R. Koenig, the city's principal administrative analyst.

The City Council voted last September to sign a three-year lease on 160,000 square feet of office space in Figueroa Plaza, covering nine floors in the building's two towers. The first year's cost to the city will be about $6.4 million, Koenig said.

According to a report prepared last year by the city's Department of General Services, city officials reviewed 25 requests for proposals from building owners throughout the downtown area, including five buildings on South Spring Street located at 433, 548, 600, 643 and 650 S. Spring. Other historic core buildings located on Broadway. one block west of Spring - were also considered but rejected, according to Koenig.

Reasons for rejection

The historic core properties were rejected either because their lease rates were too high or the terms required by the landlords exceeded the three-year term desired by the city, Koenig said.

The Figueroa Plaza rate that the city ultimately accepted was $1 per square foot per month. By comparison, the monthly rates at 600 S. Spring St. ran between 90 cents and $1.25 a foot for various floors, according to the General Services report.

In its negotiations, the city held fast to its requirement for a three-year lease term. Officials would have considered a longer-term lease with a cancellation clause that would have let the city out after three years.

But Koenig said some building owners did not accept the city's terms, which led to those sites being rejected. For similar reasons, the city rejected two other sites located at 900 and 1 100 Wilshire Blvd. - both of which are outside the historic core.

The relocation to Figueroa Plaza is a temporary move while work is completed on a $169 million project to renovate and seismically upgrade City Hall.

The 680 employees, which represent about half the total City Hall work force, are expected to eventually trickle back as the retrofitting is completed in phases, but the project could take as long as six years, according to city estimates.

Last September, City Council members approved the Figueroa Plaza deal, aware of the potential for controversy. Despite the council's unanimous endorsement of the deal, council members Rita Walters and Richard Alatorre introduced a motion in February reaffirming the city's commitment to the historic core.

Walters and Alatorre voted along with their colleagues to approve the Figueroa Plaza deal after a report from the city's Chief Administrative Officer cited the danger to City Hall and its employees in the event of a sizable earthquake.

The motion introduced by Walters and Alatorre in February directs General Services to "make every effort" in the future to relocate city employees to the historic core.

However, the city isn't legally bound to honor that commitment, said Howard Gantman, an aide to Walters. Short of an ordinance, officials are free to lease office space virtually anywhere.

Part of a bigger plan

Nevertheless, the city has dedicated itself to the historic core's revival, at least in spirit, because such a revival would contribute to the city's much larger and more complex plan to revitalize the entire downtown area, Gantman said. In 1994, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency adopted a sweeping strategic plan for downtown that calls for a mix of public and private investment in retail, housing and commercial development.

The plan also envisions a number of office leases and future investments being made on buildings along Spring Street, led in part by the anticipated relocation of thousands of city and state government workers into the area. The plan also envisions the retail-laden Broadway corridor being converted into a mix of modern retail, residential, office and entertainment venues, along with street upgrades and mass transportation improvements.

City workers now occupy about 46 percent of the estimated 1.4 million square feet of presently usable office space on Spring Street, according to city estimates.

In 1991, the state opened the newly constructed Ronald Reagan State Building at Third and Spring streets at a cost of $132.6 million. According to council aide Gantman, that building is one of the costliest real estate investments in all of downtown, let alone Spring Street. The state's consolidation of several agencies into the new building ultimately brought some 2,100 state employees into the historic core.

But since its opening, both the building and its surrounding neighborhood have drawn plenty of complaints from disgruntled state employees. "It's like an office and a prison at the same time," groused Robert Katz, an attorney with the State Attorney General's Office.

Katz said state employees and visitors who have business with government agencies in the area are forced to confront an assortment of troublesome problems on the street.