Comment
Rate
The 'Restaurant Row' Revival
 |
| Ian Ellis, a partner with West Millennium Group, at the Brockman Building. The structure will open later this year with 80 condos. A 10,000-square-foot restaurant and gourmet market will fill the ground floor. Photo by Gary Leonard |
New Plan to Turn Around Seventh Street Spins Off Eating Options
by Kathryn Maese
When most Angelenos hear the term "Restaurant Row," they think of La Cienega's collection of eateries where diners can get a slab of prime rib at Lawry's or spot celebrities at the trendy Koi and Republic.
Now, Downtown is planning its own version of Restaurant Row in the latest effort to bring back the once thriving Seventh Street corridor, which in its heyday counted copious restaurants, major department stores and entertainment venues.
With nearly a dozen deals in the works, and some already inked, the concept is gaining traction, perhaps giving Seventh Street its best chance in decades to stage a turnaround. The corridor is the spine of an effort that would start by filling about 100,000 square feet of empty retail space on four blocks between Olive and Figueroa streets. The eventual aim is to spread activity to surrounding streets such as Sixth and Grand, as more eateries, bars and, ultimately, big retail chains, catch on.
"The reason that Seventh Street is so exciting is that it's equal distance between [the future] Grand Avenue project and L.A. Live," said Hal Bastian, vice president of economic development for the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, which is spearheading Restaurant Row plans. "The number one goal is to have an area that's vibrant and alive. Restaurants are the ones who are getting it first."
Five years ago, Bastian caught the vision for the corridor when visiting Memphis' famed Beale Street, which like Seventh Street had faded decades after its heyday. Once the cradle of jazz and commerce, Beale Street began a sharp decline following the Depression and was nearly destroyed when tanks and troops all but leveled the neighborhood after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The strip lay fallow until the city partnered with a developer to revive the area in the early 1980s. Over the next two decades, Beale Street evolved into an entertainment district that defines downtown Memphis.
"One of the big complaints I heard was that there wasn't any Downtown nightlife," Bastian recalled. "Well, there is Downtown nightlife, but not all in one area. Then I thought, what if we could take this Beale Street concept and apply it to Seventh Street and fill all this space on the ground floor of buildings to create a critical mass."
For the last year and a half, Bastian has been "dialing for tenants," calling potential restaurants and retailers, promoting the concept every chance he gets, on investor tours, at meetings and events. He touts the fact that there are thousands of hotel rooms within a five-minute walk of the area, points out the Red Line Metro stop at Figueroa and Seventh that could deliver hundreds of potential diners to the new row, and mentions that five housing projects will soon bring nearly 1,000 residents to the strip (with thousands more in the surrounding area).
Building on Residents
Though it's still too early to call Seventh Street a Restaurant Row, significant activity is brewing. Take, for example, the new whiskey bar in the old Clifton's Silver Spoon building called Seven Grand. Backed by bar developer Cedd Moses, the venture at 515 W. Seventh St. is perhaps his most high-end destination to date and will help usher in the sought-after restaurant-bar boom when it opens next month. Moses is also planning a high-end restaurant underneath the whiskey bar and is looking for the right tenant.
In the refurbished Brockman Building at Seventh Street and Grand Avenue, scheduled to open later this year with 80 condos, Louie Restaurant and Gourmet Market will fill 10,000 square feet with a mid-priced version of gourmet grocer Dean & Deluca. Plans call for the market to be open from 6 a.m. until late evening, and it will feature homemade baked goods, specialty sauces and soups, European pastries, organic vegetables, seafood, and fresh mozzarella pizza Neapolitan. The restaurant will include a Milan-style coffee bar, a hot carving station, seasonal salads, and a bread and cheese area.
When the Roosevelt Lofts opens its 223 condos down the street this summer, it will also bring a host of eateries. Homan Taghdiri, a spokesman for owner Milbank Real Estate, said the Roosevelt is working with Bastian and others to promote the idea of a Restaurant Row by leasing to more sit-down restaurants instead of fast food spots. The developer is also requiring tenants to offer later hours and more upscale service.
A sushi restaurant in the Roosevelt will fill 4,500 square feet and remain open until at least 9 p.m., while a 2,500-square-foot deli and cafe will offer sit-down service until 6 p.m., and possibly later once business picks up. Taghdiri said he is negotiating with two tenants to operate a 12,000-square-foot high-end restaurant with a lounge and bar that would stay open until 1 a.m. and include a patio. The restaurant would also cater to residents with delivery and catering on the rooftop.
"We were approached by a lot of bar and restaurant operators looking for a 1,500- to 3,000-square-foot space," Taghdiri said. "I think they are going up and down the street looking. Once it's established more people will come and it will self-perpetuate."
No Pig 'n Whistle
Cater-cornered to the Roosevelt, Wokcano restaurant will open in the 818 Building, while the 611 W. Seventh Building is planning an eatery and the old Carrier Center Building at 600 W. Seventh St. is negotiating for a restaurant.
Leasing interest has been strong in the area, say local brokers, which may also have worked against the effort to bring back one of Seventh Street's early tenants, the Pig 'n Whistle pub. Nightclub investor and restaurateur Chris Breed, who owns the Hollywood Boulevard restaurant, said his deal fell through with the landlord of the Fine Arts Building at 811 W. Seventh St. when another tenant offered more money.
"It's a great location and we would have loved to bring it back with all its old Downtown history," Breed said. "Unfortunately the landlords don't see the potential and went with something else with a better offer. Considering the amount of money you have to put into a building like the Pig 'n Whistle, you have to be realistic about the numbers."
Breed said he is willing to consider other Downtown locations, but regrets that his venue won't occupy one of its original spaces.
Instead, the 4,900-square-foot mezzanine space (formerly a McDonald's) at the Fine Arts Building will now house a hip "gastro pub," said Derrick Moore, a broker with CB Richard Ellis who is handling much of the leasing activity along Seventh Street. Library Bar owner Will Shamlian will partner on the venture.
A block away, Moore said Peet's Coffee is looking to make its first foray into Downtown, while Caffe Primo is also scouting the area. In the 617 Tech building, Bo Concept furniture is competing against Walgreens for the 16,000-square-foot space, Moore said.
All the activity marks an opportunity for the street to come full-circle. In the 1940s, Seventh Street was home to such stores as C&R Clothiers, Robinson's, Lane Bryant, May Co., Bullocks, Silverwood's, Barker Brothers and Brooks Brothers. The area thrived until the end of World War II, when suburban expansion began to siphon retailers from Downtown Los Angeles.
In the 1970s, the focus away from Seventh Street increased as Bunker Hill's high-rises created a new Downtown business district. The following decade saw the closure of several major department stores. Two more blows came in the early '90s: the recession hammered the Downtown office market, and the construction of the Metro Red Line closed portions of the street for months, forcing many businesses to close and never return.
Numerous efforts over the years have tried to resuscitate the corridor, including visioning workshops, a failed proposal for a new hotel and even creating a lighting district.
But with the current housing spree across Downtown, some observers say the Restaurant Row concept could find traction and help restore Seventh Street to its former glory.
"I think that it has the potential to take off," said Moore. "I don't think it will be any sort of competition to L.A. Live because Seventh Street will attract a different type of one-off restaurant. L.A. Live is a bit more corporate. Seventh Street will have more unique offerings with some local and regional places adding to that uniqueness."
Contact Kathryn Maese at kathryn@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 3/19/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Now, Downtown is planning its own version of Restaurant Row in the latest effort to bring back the once thriving Seventh Street corridor, which in its heyday counted copious restaurants, major department stores and entertainment venues.
With nearly a dozen deals in the works, and some already inked, the concept is gaining traction, perhaps giving Seventh Street its best chance in decades to stage a turnaround. The corridor is the spine of an effort that would start by filling about 100,000 square feet of empty retail space on four blocks between Olive and Figueroa streets. The eventual aim is to spread activity to surrounding streets such as Sixth and Grand, as more eateries, bars and, ultimately, big retail chains, catch on.
"The reason that Seventh Street is so exciting is that it's equal distance between [the future] Grand Avenue project and L.A. Live," said Hal Bastian, vice president of economic development for the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, which is spearheading Restaurant Row plans. "The number one goal is to have an area that's vibrant and alive. Restaurants are the ones who are getting it first."
Five years ago, Bastian caught the vision for the corridor when visiting Memphis' famed Beale Street, which like Seventh Street had faded decades after its heyday. Once the cradle of jazz and commerce, Beale Street began a sharp decline following the Depression and was nearly destroyed when tanks and troops all but leveled the neighborhood after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The strip lay fallow until the city partnered with a developer to revive the area in the early 1980s. Over the next two decades, Beale Street evolved into an entertainment district that defines downtown Memphis.
"One of the big complaints I heard was that there wasn't any Downtown nightlife," Bastian recalled. "Well, there is Downtown nightlife, but not all in one area. Then I thought, what if we could take this Beale Street concept and apply it to Seventh Street and fill all this space on the ground floor of buildings to create a critical mass."
For the last year and a half, Bastian has been "dialing for tenants," calling potential restaurants and retailers, promoting the concept every chance he gets, on investor tours, at meetings and events. He touts the fact that there are thousands of hotel rooms within a five-minute walk of the area, points out the Red Line Metro stop at Figueroa and Seventh that could deliver hundreds of potential diners to the new row, and mentions that five housing projects will soon bring nearly 1,000 residents to the strip (with thousands more in the surrounding area).
Though it's still too early to call Seventh Street a Restaurant Row, significant activity is brewing. Take, for example, the new whiskey bar in the old Clifton's Silver Spoon building called Seven Grand. Backed by bar developer Cedd Moses, the venture at 515 W. Seventh St. is perhaps his most high-end destination to date and will help usher in the sought-after restaurant-bar boom when it opens next month. Moses is also planning a high-end restaurant underneath the whiskey bar and is looking for the right tenant.
In the refurbished Brockman Building at Seventh Street and Grand Avenue, scheduled to open later this year with 80 condos, Louie Restaurant and Gourmet Market will fill 10,000 square feet with a mid-priced version of gourmet grocer Dean & Deluca. Plans call for the market to be open from 6 a.m. until late evening, and it will feature homemade baked goods, specialty sauces and soups, European pastries, organic vegetables, seafood, and fresh mozzarella pizza Neapolitan. The restaurant will include a Milan-style coffee bar, a hot carving station, seasonal salads, and a bread and cheese area.
When the Roosevelt Lofts opens its 223 condos down the street this summer, it will also bring a host of eateries. Homan Taghdiri, a spokesman for owner Milbank Real Estate, said the Roosevelt is working with Bastian and others to promote the idea of a Restaurant Row by leasing to more sit-down restaurants instead of fast food spots. The developer is also requiring tenants to offer later hours and more upscale service.
A sushi restaurant in the Roosevelt will fill 4,500 square feet and remain open until at least 9 p.m., while a 2,500-square-foot deli and cafe will offer sit-down service until 6 p.m., and possibly later once business picks up. Taghdiri said he is negotiating with two tenants to operate a 12,000-square-foot high-end restaurant with a lounge and bar that would stay open until 1 a.m. and include a patio. The restaurant would also cater to residents with delivery and catering on the rooftop.
"We were approached by a lot of bar and restaurant operators looking for a 1,500- to 3,000-square-foot space," Taghdiri said. "I think they are going up and down the street looking. Once it's established more people will come and it will self-perpetuate."
Cater-cornered to the Roosevelt, Wokcano restaurant will open in the 818 Building, while the 611 W. Seventh Building is planning an eatery and the old Carrier Center Building at 600 W. Seventh St. is negotiating for a restaurant.
Leasing interest has been strong in the area, say local brokers, which may also have worked against the effort to bring back one of Seventh Street's early tenants, the Pig 'n Whistle pub. Nightclub investor and restaurateur Chris Breed, who owns the Hollywood Boulevard restaurant, said his deal fell through with the landlord of the Fine Arts Building at 811 W. Seventh St. when another tenant offered more money.
"It's a great location and we would have loved to bring it back with all its old Downtown history," Breed said. "Unfortunately the landlords don't see the potential and went with something else with a better offer. Considering the amount of money you have to put into a building like the Pig 'n Whistle, you have to be realistic about the numbers."
Breed said he is willing to consider other Downtown locations, but regrets that his venue won't occupy one of its original spaces.
Instead, the 4,900-square-foot mezzanine space (formerly a McDonald's) at the Fine Arts Building will now house a hip "gastro pub," said Derrick Moore, a broker with CB Richard Ellis who is handling much of the leasing activity along Seventh Street. Library Bar owner Will Shamlian will partner on the venture.
A block away, Moore said Peet's Coffee is looking to make its first foray into Downtown, while Caffe Primo is also scouting the area. In the 617 Tech building, Bo Concept furniture is competing against Walgreens for the 16,000-square-foot space, Moore said.
All the activity marks an opportunity for the street to come full-circle. In the 1940s, Seventh Street was home to such stores as C&R Clothiers, Robinson's, Lane Bryant, May Co., Bullocks, Silverwood's, Barker Brothers and Brooks Brothers. The area thrived until the end of World War II, when suburban expansion began to siphon retailers from Downtown Los Angeles.
In the 1970s, the focus away from Seventh Street increased as Bunker Hill's high-rises created a new Downtown business district. The following decade saw the closure of several major department stores. Two more blows came in the early '90s: the recession hammered the Downtown office market, and the construction of the Metro Red Line closed portions of the street for months, forcing many businesses to close and never return.
Numerous efforts over the years have tried to resuscitate the corridor, including visioning workshops, a failed proposal for a new hotel and even creating a lighting district.
But with the current housing spree across Downtown, some observers say the Restaurant Row concept could find traction and help restore Seventh Street to its former glory.
"I think that it has the potential to take off," said Moore. "I don't think it will be any sort of competition to L.A. Live because Seventh Street will attract a different type of one-off restaurant. L.A. Live is a bit more corporate. Seventh Street will have more unique offerings with some local and regional places adding to that uniqueness."
Contact Kathryn Maese at kathryn@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 3/19/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
 |
||
| University Gateway Heads to Council |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of ladowntownnews.com.
You must register with a valid email to post comments. Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here: |
Become a Registered User |
Popular Searches
