LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS
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New street markers, a new bar, and other happenings Around Town.
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The readers have a lot to say about Jon Stewart’s rally and the future of Downtown.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
October 25, 2010
Volume 39, Number 43
INSIDE
Eerie Halloween Events
The Survivor Joseph Hellen Escaped the Nazis and Made a Fortune in Australia. Now, at 85, He’s Got Big Plans for Broadway
Basketball starts, but a dark cloud looms.
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Rappel down the Westin Bonaventure.
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Change is coming to a Little Tokyo mall.
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PICK THE
PROS Pick football games, win prizes.
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Another year of two Downtown ice rinks.
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photo by Gary Leonard
Downtown landowner and developer Joseph Hellen, 85, whose projects include the Broadway-Spring Arcade building (shown here), keeps a low profile. “I don’t need to impress anybody,” he says. by Ryan Vaillancourt staff writer
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n many ways, the story of Downtown property owner Joseph Hellen is much like that of every developer involved in major urban projects. He is a calculated risk-taker with an instinctive eye for up-and-coming locations. He’s a firm, confident decision maker. He has also been right frequently, amassing hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate holdings.
In other ways, the 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who lives in Australia is unique among Downtown’s major real estate players. Downtown Management, which runs his portfolio of nine Historic Core properties (it is also known as Mideb), was formed in the late 1980s. A shopping mall tycoon in Melbourne, Hellen even then saw a chance to transform Broadway into an upscale, outdoor retail scene. Into the early 1990s, he snapped up buildings suited to hold ground floor retail and housing on the upper levels.
He made a splash in 1992 when he announced a $55 million plan to demolish the Cameo, Roxy and Arcade theaters and turn the three conjoined buildings at 518-534 S. Broadway into upscale shops. Preservationists protested fiercely, as did the Community Redevelopment Agency, and the plan crumbled. Though he is a veteran Historic Core property owner, Hellen is also late to the local development game. This year, more than two decades after see Hellen, page 12
Happy City Hall-o-ween You Don’t Have to Go Far for a Los Angeles Fright Show by Jon Regardie executive editor
A special Healthcare section.
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22 CALENDAR LISTINGS 25 MAP 26 CLASSIFIEDS
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ven on the sunniest day, City Hall is one of the scariest places in Los Angeles. Many mighty figures have entered the structure, only to be reduced to whimpering, drooling mounds the regardie report
after dealing with the horror show inside. On Halloween, it only gets worse. What follows is a description of the imaginary haunted house the building will become on Oct. 31. All of the ghouls, gasps, budget cuts and skeletons in closets described below are completely made up. Or are they? Bwahahavillaragosahaha.
The Writing on the Stone: You approach City Hall and see the South Lawn dotted with short, curved gray slabs. You bend down to peer at one and see the words “Million Trees L.A.” Another says “LAUSD Takeover.” The next two read “LAPD Chief William Bratton” and “Fire Chief Douglas Barry.” A big one holds the phrase “Chief Deputy Mayor Jay Carson” and a larger one says “Gubernatorial Ambitions.” Holy terror, you realize the lawn is full of tombstones and that this is a cemetery for the failed plans and former higherups of the current mayoral administration. There is a burial plot for “Balanced Budget,” one for “Substantive Pension Reform” and another for “City Planner Gail Goldberg.” Oh my gosh, the see City Hall, page 11
The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles