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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Taking Another Ride Through NoHo

I told you back in 2004 when I moved to North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts District area that I’d try to give you some first-hand observations concerning the redevelopment there. As a resident of that much-publicized so-called urban village perhaps I could put all the hype into context. Is it working? If it isn’t, what will be needed to make it work from the viewpoint of a person who knocks around there everyday? The recent announcement that the MTA is negotiating with Lowe Enterprises to create a massive $1 billion mixed-use project in the arts district area seems like a good time for me to give public officials and developers a reality check from a resident. Yes, a reality check. From my standpoint, there are some fundamental problems with the urban village concept in NoHo. But I think it all can work if you redefine the concept a little bit. For those of you who need a refresher course, the NoHo Arts District urban village is an area roughly near Lankershim and Chandler boulevards that once was a rundown part of the Valley. The neighborhood has been gradually transformed, with live theaters and comedy clubs, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the NoHo Commons residential/retail complex that includes an upscale supermarket and some other outlets such as restaurant chains like Panda Express, Coldstone Creamery and Wells Fargo bank. A high-end restaurant/nightclub also just opened up. There’s also a huge residential component. I live in one of the apartment complexes there. This whole development surrounds the Chandler Red Line subway stop and Orange Line and other bus line hubs. Conceptually, the urban village concept is designed so that people living in the village will take public transportation rather than drive their cars. The problems I find with NoHo concern the huge residential component as well as the disconnect between the public transportation that surrounds the area and the purpose of the urban village concept. There are well over a thousand apartment and condo units that have recently come onto the market in NoHo or will be coming online soon. My apartment complex (The Gallery at NoHo Commons) has been open a little less than a year. It’s only about 50 percent occupied. Across the street is the swanky NoHo Lofts complex, which management there says is only 65 percent occupied. These places are pricey, running up to as high as $2,500 a month and they’re not very big. Those are very expensive apartments for the Valley and I bet anything that few people from the Westside are going to be moving to North Hollywood into these things. No matter how nice it gets, it will take decades for North Hollywood to shed its negative image among people outside of the Valley. So, who’s going to rent these apartments? Not the people riding the nearby public transportation, as urban visionaries predicted.I’ve taken the Orange Line bus line several times (that’s the one that speeds passengers on a dedicated busway from North Hollywood to Woodland Hills). I’m still the only one wearing a tie. The so-called professionals that live in my building and others nearby are still pulling out of the complexes in fancy cars and driving to work. They wouldn’t be caught dead on the Orange Line or even the subway. People from other parts of L.A. are riding the subway to the Chandler station and then taking the Orange Line to work in the Valley. So how does the urban village concept work if there are not enough people who want to rent expensive apartments in North Hollywood of all places? And if the riders who use public transportation don’t actually live in the urban village? Well, it’ll work if you don’t call it an urban village just yet. Just call it a redeveloped area with a bunch of pricey apartments, cookie-cutter chain stores and some entertainment. The MTA riders just pass through. Don’t pretend it’s all integrated yet. Hopefully, all the apartments will fill up and these newcomers will actually use the public transit. Also, the retail will get better and a little more interesting, I hope. Community Redevelopment board member Bruce Ackerman, who also runs the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, thinks NoHo can become the next Warner Center a showcase development for the Valley. He says the developers active in the area have done their homework and won’t over-saturate the market with apartments and put in retail that won’t be successful. Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff can be reached at (818) 316-3125 or at [email protected] .

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