Two large projects could alter strip's small-shop atmosphere.

LA Brea Avenue long has been home to an expanse of modernist furniture shops, gritty car mechanics and, most recently, boutique retailers priced out of trendier cross streets.

Now attention is fixed on two large, mixed-use projects that could reshape about a mile and a half of the north/south

At the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, J.H. Snyder Co. is nearing completion of its $75 million West Hollywood Gateway project, which will have three levels of underground parking and 245,000 square feet for a Target and a Best Buy, along with office and smaller retail space. The development replaces several derelict warehouses and a car wash.

"(La Brea) is totally full of potential," said Milt Swimmer, a partner at J.H. Snyder Overseeing the development of the West Hollywood Gateway. "There's this impetus for a complete renaissance in the area. It may not happen in two years, but it will happen."

Farther south, at the corner of La Brea and First Street, Bomel Management plans a $78 million mixed-use project on the 2-acre site of the vacant Continental Graphics Corp. building. The project would include 60,000 square feet of retail space and up to 200 loft condominiums.

Robert Rechnitz, a Bomel principal, said the retail space is being broken up into small storefronts to attract local businesses. "We very much like and want to retain the indie character and feel of the neighborhood," he said.

Bomel plans a similar mixed-use project at the former KCOP-TV television studio at 915 N. La Brea Ave., two blocks south of Santa Monica Boulevard. Unlike the Continental building, preliminary plans for the 2.3-acre site are geared toward a single commercial tenant, along with a smaller housing component.

Rechnitz said the Gateway project played a key role in the decision to buy the KCOP property. "With people moving into Hollywood and Silver lake, La Brea has become very central to where people live and work in Los Angeles," he said.

Attracting attention

Before freeways, La Brea served as a commercial core for upscale neighborhoods nearby, like Hancock Park, and the street was once dotted with jazz clubs and restaurants. Nat King Cole was said to have gotten his big break performing at the Swanee Inn, a jazz club at the current site of Italian bistro Amalfi Ristorante. But as the center of Los Angeles moved westward, La Brea's businesses migrated as well.

More recently, the street has become home to a de facto modern furniture district and has attracted boutiques that have been priced out of trendy Melrose Avenue since the 1980s. "The greater area has been going through a sort of renaissance," said M.D. Sweeney, owner of Amalfi and the adjacent Acme Theater. "Now it's La Brea's time."

Sweeney said he had seen large retail projects skip La Brea for Fairfax and Highland avenues. But now landlords are renovating their La Brea buildings and attracting a new mix of boutique retailers and art galleries.

Demand for retail space along La Brea has been steadily increasing. Matthew May, president of May Realty Advisors, said he has been having trouble finding a 5,000- to 10,000-square-foot storefront for a furniture client.

"There is just nothing available," he said.

Meanwhile, a close-knit Orthodox Jewish community has built and refurbished between 20 to 25 buildings, according to Dr. Irving Lebovics, chairman of Agudath Israel, a group promoting Orthodox Judaism. Much of the development involves schools and community centers on the 300, 400 and 500 blocks of La Brea.

"We think it enhances the neighborhood tremendously," Lebovics, a dentist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said of the improvements. "And the fact there is all this foot traffic is a tremendous addition, too. It makes it feel like a real community."

The area's lingering crime problem might also be eased by the changes.

Swimmer, who is overseeing development of the West Hollywood Gateway, said that before bulldozers could tear down several derelict warehouses on the site, a street gang had to be forcibly evicted.

"I'm not kidding you, when we took the site over there was a criminal gang in the warehouse buildings," he said. "To go from that to what's going to be there now, I think it's going to be a really dramatic change."

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