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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

SNYDER—Snyder’s Touch: Is It the Gold N. Hollywood Needs?

As L.A. city officials review new plans for getting a long-troubled multi-million-dollar commercial and residential development underway in North Hollywood, those who have watched the project come in and off line for the last few years say the third time could just be the charm. Real estate developer J.H. Snyder Co. is close to obtaining city approval for his project, a 1.2 million-square-foot retail/commercial/residential complex long, and still hopefully, called the NoHo Commons. Developer J. Allen Radford, managing partner of Santa Monica-based JARCO Inc., had tried since early 1998 to get a commercial project off the ground at the 15-acre L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency site along Lankershim Boulevard next to the Red Line subway station. Twice he was forced to scale back his proposal, which he once described as “gold plated.” And twice Radford asked for extensions on negotiations with the CRA before finally conceding earlier this year he could not come up with the funding needed to make it fly. Now city officials, the CRA and even one long-time critic of Radford’s project say Snyder’s proposal appears to be more conducive to both residents and business owners. “We are in the process of working with Snyder to bring more detail into the plan as we get a better sense of the overall market, to see whether some parts of it should be expanded or made smaller,” said Dave Stolzer, senior real estate developer for the CRA. Stolzer described Snyder as a “very strong developer,” and said the city is confident he would not have the trouble Radford did securing underwriters for the project and ultimate CRA approval. Jerry Snyder’s $180-million version of NoHo Commons would include 150,000 square feet of retail space, 200,000 square feet of office space, a supermarket and roughly 750 apartment units. And, he said, he’d keep the name. In addition, Snyder hopes to win approval on a bid to build a new high school on a portion of nearby land. That facet could be the linchpin for the rest of the project, long viewed as the cornerstone of revitalization for the blighted area dominated by automotive and industrial businesses. “We totally redesigned the project,” said Snyder. “We think it’s a viable one and we won’t have any trouble with funding, we know that already.” Snyder declined to say who he has lined up to back his project, which would be built in three phases and, if approved relatively quickly, could get underway by the end of the year. Roughly four acres of the land belongs to private parties, which, if necessary, the city could take much to the chagrin of several local business owners under its powers of eminent domain in order to secure a developable block of land. In 1997, Radford proposed a $1 billion, 43-acre development with 4.2 million square feet of offices, stores, restaurants and movie theatres; a 300-room hotel; and 10 sound stages. Last year, those plans were scaled back to a $400 million, 22-acre development, and no sound stages. Glen Hoiby, an attorney based in the NoHo district and member of a committee that tracks development in the area, is one of several critics of Radford’s initial proposal. He said his preference is a project that is balanced in scale and size that wouldn’t result in overcrowding. “I did see a brief overview of the Snyder project and it seems the plan is somewhat more practical,” Hoiby said. “It’s smaller and more of a mixed use and doesn’t have a movie theatre and seems to have a little greater potential for commercial success.” Hoiby said the fact that the city could use its powers of eminent domain has fed into the project’s long history of false starts. “NoHo has really been somewhat stagnant for many, many years,” said Hoiby. “One of the big problems all along has been getting funding for the developers and I don’t know that the city was ever really all that concerned about that.” Also threatening to scare off potential tenants for the project is a local push for a so-called living wage for those who eventually work at NoHo Commons. Radford had said that threatened to kill the project altogether. Snyder, on the other hand, said he has been in “negotiations” with living-wage advocates and “is working on a compromise that both sides can swallow.” With the deal under discussion, employees of the proposed supermarket, should it remain a part of the overall project, would be paid union wages. Stolzer said the CRA board will likely review the final Environmental Impact Report for Snyder’s development over the next few weeks, but he couldn’t predict when it would be green-lighted. “I wish I could say one month, two months, but we are really doing all we can to expedite the project,” he said.

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