Love Means
Send a Love Line
LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS
19
dEadLinE for EntriEs — February 3
Target... Meet me at 7+FIG, I would love to swipe my card in your check-out line... Downtown
A box of chocolates, a dozen roses and your message in Downtown News.
Elin... Not counting the others, you’re the only one...Tiger NFL... I’m a team player, now give me a team...L.A. Joe... I waited and waited, I’m sorry but I’ve met someone else. His name is Ralph... Downtown
Let It Grow Collective
The First 12 Words Are FREE!
The Fastest & Safest Way to Get Your Cannabis Delivered Guaranteed (Limited to one FREE message per reader.)
My ne Valenti Print or type
Love Line
Message:
Free up to here
www.letitgrowcollective.com See our ad on page 3 Continue on another sheet if necessary
Total Words in Message
(First 12 words are FREE!)
Name* Address*
Just fill out the Love Lines form and mail, fax, email or deliver before Wdnesday, February 3.
City*
Phone*
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M Number of words over 12:
The first 12 words are free.
January 25, 2010
Volume 39, Number 4
ExprEss your amour in our romantic LovE LinEs Edition — February 8
x $1 per word = $
Total amount enclosed: $
Pay just $1 for each word exceeding the first FREE 12. All messages must be prepaid.
*Required Fields (All messages must be prepaid)
L.A. Downtown News • 1264 W. First Street, L.A., CA 90026 • fax: (213) 250-4617 • email: lovelines@DowntownNews.com • office hours: M-F, 8:30-5
INSIDE
Hanging On by a Thread Changing Tastes and Increasing Competition Alter the Los Angeles Street Suit Scene by Ryan VaillancouRt
Is Los Angeles going bankrupt?
3
Urban Scrawl on all kinds of storms.
4
Changes coming to Chinatown’s plazas.
6
staff wRiteR
F
or decades in Los Angeles, men in search of high-quality suits at bargain prices knew to come to Los Angeles Street. These days, the street is still a menswear hub, with three blocks lined with suit clad mannequins, though finding top-notch threads is no longer so easy. Since the late 1950s, the stretch between Seventh and Ninth streets has been lined with haberdasheries. In the second half of the last century, the block was anchored by a quartet of standout shops: Max Levine and Son, Academy Award Clothes, Eisenberg and Eisenberg and Roger Stuart Clothes, plus numer-
The Big Takeover
Rents at Temporary El Pueblo Shops Add Fuel to a Long-Running Dispute
Looking at What Happens When Banks Foreclose on Troubled Properties
by RichaRd Guzmán
by anna scott
F
7
The food kings down at USC.
13
The Joffrey Ballet returns to L.A.
14
16 CALENDAR LISTINGS 20 MAP 21 CLASSIFIEDS
photo by Gary Leonard
Roger Keller owns Roger Stuart Clothes, the last of Los Angeles Street’s original discount suit stores. He has stayed in business only by altering the area’s traditional business model.
The ‘Puesto’ Puzzle city editoR
From Haiti to Downtown, before the quake.
ous other competitors. Today, Roger Stuart Clothes is the only one of the four still standing, and that’s because the founder’s son and current owner has significantly altered the area’s old business model. Academy Award Clothes shuttered in late 2008, following Max Levine about 15 years earlier, and Eisenberg and Eisenberg, which called it quits in the mid 1970s. Plenty of other shops are on the street, but if an old patron of, say Max Levine, returned to modern Los Angeles Street, the area’s inventory might make him choke on his martini. Though some shops still stock the high-quality wool see Suits, page 11
or decades, it has been difficult for entrepreneurs to open shops at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Most of the businesses at the monument’s popular Olvera Street attraction, which sees about 2 million visitors a year, have been handed down through generations of family members. That is changing — on a small scale. A handful of new business owners are coming in to some of the puestos, the tiny kiosks that usually sell trinkets and other Mexican themed items, at El Pueblo plaza. While their stay is temporary, the rents they are paying are substantially higher than what longtime puesto owners shell out. That worries some of the permanent tenants, who for years have paid below-market rents. They fear the temporary rates could impact them during coming lease negotiations. “Cleary this is a benchmark. For the last [few] years there has been debate about what the current market value is,” said David Louie, a member of the El Pueblo Board of Commissioners. “It’s been debated and debated, but this time we got the appraisal and responses that are significantly higher than what the tenants are paying.” Six temporary puestos went up for grabs late last year. The four spaces that have been rented so far will bring in $1,100-$2,000 per month from business owners who signed
three-month leases with the city. It is a far cry from the average $300 a month that longtime puesto owners pay. Temporary Homes The puestos range from about 50 to 100 square feet. The six temporary spaces, which are roughly the same size as the permanent businesses, were built to house regular tenants while their kiosks were renovated by the city. Most of the renovations are complete, and puesto owners who vacated their temporary facilities returned to their permanent spots late last year. However, due to a delay in some electrical work, several puestos on the east end of the block still need renovations. In about three months, they will be relocated to the temporary facilities. After that work is done, the six temporary puestos will be removed, since the State Historic General Plan does not allow permanent businesses on the plaza of El Pueblo. To take advantage of the threemonth lag between renovation work, El Pueblo officials decided to rent the temporary puestos. They were pleased at the response. “What these figures suggest is that there is a business opportunity here,” said Robert Andrade, general manager of El Pueblo. “Certainly it suggests that the market rates are the facts, and at this point this is what some people are willing to pay.” Rents at El Pueblo have long been a controversial topic. Many see Puesto, page 8
staff wRiteR
I
f the bankruptcy process and its many permutations constitute murky waters, foreclosure is the financial Loch Ness. In Downtown Los Angeles, at least eight residential projects and one hotel have fallen into bankruptcy. Some of those projects, along with others in the area, have also faced foreclosure — an equally complex process with just as many possible endings. The question now — and in the future as other developers who began projects before the recession face a financial crunch — is what happens to the buildings once the lenders take over. Will there be a swift turnaround that adds to the residential momentum, or will the lenders sit on the properties, wait-
ing for values to increase, even if it means structures remain empty for months or years? Foreclosure, particularly involving large projects and in the current economy, is anything but a straight line from point A to point B. A number of scenarios can play out in the months after a lender initiates the process, and not every case ends with the borrower losing property. No less than five Downtown projects have been foreclosed on and sold, or are currently in foreclosure. At least one other has been quietly turned over to lenders, most likely in a transaction experts term “friendly foreclosures.” The developments range from projects that have not yet broken ground, like the L.A. Central mixed-use complex across the street from L.A. Live, see Foreclosure, page 10
photo by Gary Leonard
The Flat in City West was foreclosed on and sold last October by lender China Trust Bank. It is one of several Downtown buildings that encountered trouble after its developer was unable to pay back a loan.
The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles