Homes Urged at Site of Scuttled Stadium

With Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz and his allies backing away from efforts to build a 64,000-seat football stadium near Staples Center, a Cleveland-based development company unveiled plans Thursday to transform the area into a residential community with 2,600 housing units, several parks and a school.

Greg Vilkin, the West Coast president of Forest City Inc., told members of the Central City Assn. that his company wants to build market-rate and affordable housing on a nine-block swath of the South Park area in downtown Los Angeles.

Vilkin made his announcement during a luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel, less than a week after Tim Leiweke, the president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, said his company would withdraw its plans to build a football stadium in South Park. The company had hoped to persuade a National Football League team to relocate to the new stadium.

Speculation had persisted that the Anschutz group would try to build the stadium anyway and was just announcing its cancellation as a ploy. In response, Leiweke said this week that the Anschutz group had begun to let go of options to buy property on the proposed stadium site.

“If we were bluffing,� he said in an interview Wednesday, “that wouldn’t be a very smart thing to do.�

Vilkin’s announcement strapped another muzzle on the stadium talk, although he stressed that his housing plan is far from complete. He said he has long considered building homes on South Park land now occupied by parking lots and old warehouses. Under Forest City’s proposal, the company would develop land stretching from Olympic Boulevard to Pico Boulevard and from Flower Street to Hill Street.

The nine-block area--which encompasses the 16 acres where Anschutz wanted to build the stadium--is part of an 879-acre redevelopment zone created by Los Angeles City Council in May.

The special district was set up to allow the Community Redevelopment Agency to funnel new property tax funds back into the area, to condemn and acquire land and to relocate residents and businesses.

The proposed development would help meet one of the agency’s primary goals: creating as many as 12,900 homes, a quarter of which would be affordable, over the next 30 to 45 years.

Vilkin said the plan was intended to “spark discussion and debate about the appropriate uses in South Park.�

He said it would be more than a year--and possibly several years--before the company could break ground on the project if it were approved. “We are giving people a choice on the vision for the area,� he said.

So far, Vilkin said he has met council members and Mayor James K. Hahn to discuss the plans. Hahn, who strongly backed Anschutz’s stadium efforts, could not be reached for comment.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who had also supported the stadium plan, said she welcomed the housing proposal. “Although the stadium proposal has been put to rest, for now, we have to make sure we pursue the highest and best use of the land in the South Park area,� Perry said.

Vilkin refused to disclose if he was seeking to acquire land held by Anschutz, whose company still owns some parcels in the area. He did say, however, that he hoped to purchase some of the parcels for the proposed development with the help of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which has the ability to acquire land through eminent domain.

In addition to working on projects in downtown Los Angeles, Forest City has been pursuing a number of developments in other cities. The company was chosen to transform Denver’s former Stapleton International Airport into a 4,700-acre mixed-use urban community.

The company also helped renovate New York’s Times Square. Currently, it is building a new headquarters for the New York Times and is redeveloping Chicago’s old rail yards.

As for the Anschutz group, Leiweke said the company is moving on to other projects, in particular an entertainment district anchored by a major convention hotel and 7,000-seat theater in the area surrounding Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“We’re busy,� Leiweke said. “We’ve got a lot going on.� Returning to the stadium plan, he added: “Will we come back to this one? I’m not sure I see any scenario that would make me believe we would.�

Leiweke said there was no single event or opponent that halted the football project, but rather a combination of several. These included a lawsuit that Los Angeles County is planning to file against the city over the creation of the downtown redevelopment zone; opposition by several members of the City Council and county Board of Supervisors, including Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky; and a decision by the Coliseum Commission to pursue an NFL franchise.

The entertainment district remains the company’s top priority, Leiweke added, and officials of the Anschutz group were worried that opposition to the stadium--in particular the county’s lawsuit--could threaten plans for the hotel, which would be the linchpin of the development.

“The hotel’s tied into the [Community Redevelopment Agency]. Without the CRA, we have a problem with the hotel. And that’s why we’re anxious for the city and county to resolve whatever differences they have,� he said.

Among those with a political stake in the stadium proposal was Hahn, who supported the plan while insisting the city would not spend public money on it. Leiweke insisted that he didn’t mean any slight to Hahn when he complained about a lack of political support.

“The one person in this whole process that we owe a debt of gratitude toward is the mayor,� Leiweke said.

He added that “simply out of respect to him,� he would not completely rule out the possibility of the stadium plan someday being revived.