Politics & Government
Facade Improvement Program Begins at Laurel Canyon Corridor
The program offers up to $35,000 in conditional grants to commercial business owners and tenants in the CRA's Laurel Canyon Commercial Corridor.
The Valley Plaza mall has been called "an economic black hole," a "bombed-out zone," and a "giant waste of space" by different leaders in the community who were interviewed for on the history of the mall.
Recently a Community Redevelopment Agency-sponsored program to rebuild and improve the facades near the plaza began, a step that many in the community hope is a first toward a full revitalization of this once-mighty mall. The program offers up to $35,000 in conditional grants to commercial business owners and tenants in the CRA's Laurel Canyon Commercial Corridor for exterior facade improvements. (See attached PDF for details.)
Currently construction on the facades are underway at multiple locations near the plaza. (An earlier version of this story stated that improvements were underway at the Valley Plaza itself, but Gazala Pirzada, project coordinator for the CRA North Hollywood, clarified at a recent meeting of the Mid-town North Hollywood Neighborhood Plaza that renovations as part of the project were only taking place the on the east side of Laurel Canyon and along Victory Boulevard as part of the CRA's larger Laurel Canyon Commercial Corridor area. There are multiple facade improvement projects currently underway at the Valley Plaza itself, but those projects are not part of the CRA's project. For the boundaries of the full Laurel Canyon Commercial Corridor, see the attached PDF.)
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"I thought that it was important for the CRA also to work with existing small businesses to try to improve the business climate and fight blight by helping small businesses," said Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents the area and spearheaded getting program approved by the Los Angeles City Council. "So we've developed, in partnership with the CRA, a couple of important programs, the business assistance program and the facade improvement program."
The business assistance program is another key movement to help current business owners in the corridor while a long-term redevelopment is planned. The majority of the crumbling Valley Plaza mall is currently owned by iStar Financial, which . Snyder had at one point planned a $333 million dollar state-of-the-art mall on the site.
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"Property owners can get up to $249,000, but if they apply for more than $100,000, they have to match it dollar for dollar," said Gazala Pirzada, project coordinator for the CRA North Hollywood, when describing the business assistance program to Patch.
, Krekorian stressed that the facade improvement and business assistance programs were "just a short-term remedy for the appearance, while we are continuing to work on the long-term development of the project so that it will be transformative into a new vision for this area."
At a recent NoHo West Neighborhood Council meeting, Krekorian was that iStar would be coming forward with a major redevelopment plan for the plaza soon.
"We've met several times with them in my office to kind of go over with them what I expect to be done ... and I think we're going to get there," Krekorian said. "They seem to be able to pencil out some proposals and we're still working on it. They're still doing all their economic analysis, but I think that we're going to get something done."
Krekorian has frequently named the Valley Plaza his top economic development priority.
"As it is right now, it's a horrible, horrible disaster for this area," Krekorian told the NoHo West Neighborhood Council. "And when that turns around, I really, genuinely believe that's going to be a spark for this whole area."
Patch will follow the facade improvements and update our readers once the project is complete.
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