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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Downtown Lancaster Is Ready for Its Makeover

On a weekday morning or afternoon, downtown Lancaster can be a quiet place. Few people are about, with the most activity taking place at the Bank of America ATMs, the post office or county library. Plans are afoot to change that, to make the area in and around Lancaster Boulevard from Sierra Highway to 10th Street West into an urban center where residents can live and socialize. All it takes is a commitment from the city, support from the residents and risk-taking on the part of investors to put in the foundation. “There is no reason why downtown Lancaster cannot remake itself into a destination locale and build on things we have already done that are unique,” said Brian Ludicke, planning director for the City of Lancaster. In the works for three years, a preliminary draft of the Downtown Specific Plan and environmental impact report will soon be released to the public. The city’s planning commission may give a recommendation as early as July followed by approval by the city council. In its initial study RBF Consulting divided the 140-acre downtown area into seven distinct districts identified by their primary use commerce, transit, small offices, public parkways, the arts, and residential. With a projected build-out of 2030, the downtown would encompass nearly a million square feet each in retail and service space, and office and public space; and 3,500 residential units. With the urban center approach Lancaster joins other cities in California and throughout the nation to revitalize areas that had been abandoned by merchants and residents alike. New projects of a similar stripe are taking shape in Hollywood and North Hollywood mixed use development combining retail with multi-family housing situated near public transportation. Lancaster’s plan incorporates the close proximity of the MetroLink station at Sierra Highway, the eastern border of the planning area. “This will be the first time there is a project where you can live, work and play so to speak within the same walkable vicinity,” said Joshua Mann, the director of the Antelope Valley Board Of Trade and president of Lancaster Old Town Site, a group of downtown business and property owners. Past efforts The city, property owners and business people never turned their backs on downtown. The Old Town Site group, for instance, funded decorative signs and lights along Lancaster Boulevard, and commissioned four murals of aviation and aerospace pioneers. For its part, the city in the 1980s chose Fern Avenue for its new city hall over a location closer to the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway. In 1988, the city-owned performing arts center was built on the Boulevard, becoming the primary entertainment venue for the city. In the following decade, the city convinced Los Angeles County to build a sheriff’s station and regional library in the downtown area, increasing the number of civic buildings. Mixed in are primarily small businesses lawyers and doctors, a few restaurants, a coffee shop, several banks, a costume store and women’s boutique. All that remains of a chain retailer is the Woolworth’s spelled out on the tile at the corner of Date and Lancaster Boulevard. The single story building that had been a grocery store and later a furniture store stands empty, its slogan “Your Money’s Worth More at Aven’s” chipped and fading on the facade. (A new Aven’s store is nearby at 10th Street West and the Boulevard.) For all its ambitions, the downtown plan does not intend to resurrect the area as a retail hub. Instead it must position itself to draw in people looking to socialize and be entertained and create a synergy between the businesses, Ludicke said. An example is the Lemon Leaf, a restaurant that attracts crowds evenings when there is an event at the performing arts center, Ludicke said. Key to the redevelopment plan is developer Scott Ehrlich who has already built senior housing downtown and will soon complete the renovation of the Essex Hotel into more. Ehrlich and InSite Development, based in Encino, started construction on an artists’ lofts project, and will convert the former furniture store into a restaurant and lounge. “If he can make those both go, I don’t think we will have problems selling downtown to other developers,” Mann said. Major property owner The perception others have of Ehrlich is of a risk-taker but he considers himself conservative in business ventures. “I am a doer. I always cover myself with a lot of different ways,” Ehrlich said. “If something doesn’t work out I have alternatives.” InSite has had a presence in the Antelope Valley for more than a decade and now owns about 10 percent of its apartment buildings. In downtown Lancaster, Ehrlich and InSite have millions of dollars invested in senior housing, lofts, retail and office space. Architectural firm Prantis Solares Studios designed many of the structures. When completed, the conversion of the Essex Hotel carries a cost of $30 million. The artists loft project and the restaurant project are a combined $12 million. The proposed 40-unit Arbor on Date project is $7.5 million and Sagebrush of Downtown is $6 million. With an established record in the city, InSite was approached to be part of the redevelopment. Having tired of battling bureaucracies elsewhere, Ehrlich said he likes being where he is appreciated. “You set the vision and goal and the people who make it happen are in private enterprise,” said Vice Mayor Ron Smith said. Old Town Pasadena, Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and Honolulu Street in Montrose get cited as examples of what the new downtown can be. Ehrlich, however, takes his inspiration from developer Rick Caruso, whose latest retail and residential project the Americana at Brand recently opened in Glendale. In the Americana, The Grove and other projects developed by Caruso throughout the Valley and the West Side, he has created places where people wanted to gather and socialize, Ehrlich said. Lancaster and the Antelope Valley as a whole are ready for the downtown’s makeover to become something similar. “I have way more than a $40 million bet on it,” Ehrlich said.

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