A Repeatable Experiment?

Have you ever pretended you were a real estate developer? It’s an entertaining mental exercise. You start to look at nice buildings with envy, and dilapidated ones with a creative eye. What could you do with that property? This issue’s special report tells how North Hollywood transformed from a gritty working-class neighborhood to a trendy arts district. It was a slow process, full of setbacks and obstacles, but today NoHo has the expensive real estate, multiple construction projects and growing population to prove its appeal. And developers deserve a lot of the credit. Of course, NoHo was a high point on the list of projects managed by L.A.’s former Community Redevelopment Agency. It poured more than $28 million into the 743-acre North Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area before it was dismantled by a state law ending all redevelopment agencies in 2011. But government can’t supply the enormous amounts of money needed to turn around a neighborhood. The redevelopment agency estimated private investors put $425 million into NoHo, and since the agency ended, that number has grown substantially, as evidenced by the projects displayed in this issue on page 19. For we wannabe developers who aren’t profiting from the NoHo revitalization, it brings up the question: Is it repeatable? Was the NoHo transformation a lucky accident, or is there a discernible pattern? What can other communities in the Valley that might want a new start – Reseda, San Fernando or Panorama City come to mind – learn from the North Hollywood experiment? As you scout around for redev opportunities, here are a few of the factors that worked in NoHo’s favor and could play a role elsewhere. Location: North Hollywood sits at the mouth of a mountain pass leading into the Valley. That could be an advantage or a liability. For years, commuters hurried to get through the Cahuenga Pass and get home as fast as possible. Whooshing freeways don’t lend cachet to the neighborhood. Somehow North Hollywood found a way to sell its transit-friendly location to lawmakers, federal funding agencies, local riders and residents. That was no accident. If a neighborhood has a location that can attract mass transit investment, it’s time to trumpet it. If not, a savvy developer might sell isolation as a positive – “off the beaten path,” “privacy in the big city,” etc. – in positioning the community for renewal. Land: Developers like large tracts, not one-off residential lots, for redevelopment. Along its major streets, NoHo has a nice variety of small industrial parcels – big enough to build a project, but not so large as to break the bank. Art Connection: Perhaps the biggest advantage NoHo has is its name. An arts district gains instant credibility from any connection, however tenuous, with show business. After I first came to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, I lived in North Hollywood for a brief time. When I informed my friend in Utah, he was so impressed. I explained that I lived miles away from the glamour of Sunset Boulevard in a grungy apartment. But it didn’t matter. “As long as it has ‘Hollywood’ in the name, it’s cool,” my friend replied. “You’ve made it in show business.” NoHo had to wait for its stars to line up. The celestial clock is still in motion for other neighborhoods with attractive locations, right-sized parcels of land and names with a history of past glory. But if you keep pretending you’re a developer, and keep looking for sites, you might find that undervalued Valley pay dirt ready for gentrification. And if you can discover a vague connection between the property and a dead movie star or film set, you might be able to make it in show business – or at least in real estate. Joel Russell is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].