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  #41  
Old Posted May 9, 2004, 1:20 AM
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Yup, it'll certainly add some much needed density
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  #42  
Old Posted May 9, 2004, 9:08 PM
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Hey guys, the Ins. Exchange has a presentable website now: http://www.insuranceexchangelofts.com

Does anyone know what price they'll be starting at? I can't find sales info. My guess is starting past 500K.
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  #43  
Old Posted May 9, 2004, 11:10 PM
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^^

I asked and they start at 550k, a bit overpriced if you ask me. I would rather buy at the Aqua Twin Tower condos... they start in the mid 300k with better views.
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  #44  
Old Posted May 10, 2004, 4:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LAMetroGuy
^^

I asked and they start at 550k, a bit overpriced if you ask me. I would rather buy at the Aqua Twin Tower condos... they start in the mid 300k with better views.
Nah, that's too Disneyish for me, between the design and the size of them, and the setback makes it feel almost suburban. I don't like Ocean Blvd at all. I like the Ins. Exchange and the space. Ironic, since my current condo is 568 sqft -- LOL! I have the Aqua development rising right over my neighborhood. Looks good from here. I'll be able to see the Broadway Lofts, too, if they ever, um, START on them.
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  #45  
Old Posted May 10, 2004, 5:58 PM
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<img src="http://www.lbreport.com/images/elb/doug3.jpg">

Site plan for Douglas Park, the new name for PacifiCenter.

Amazing, it actually looks like a neighborhood. The faster they trash Boeing the better off LB will be.
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  #46  
Old Posted May 15, 2004, 3:56 AM
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Queensway Bay Downtown Harbor

Queensway Bay Downtown Harbor - Retail Development
From: http://www.eekarchitects.com

Location: Long Beach, California
Adjacent to our built waterfront project at Queensway Bay, the retail development serves as a pivotal urban linkage connecting downtown Long Beach with the new, revitalized harbor. While maintaining its own particular atmosphere, EE&K Architects' design relates the retail development to the overall waterfront design through the use of a common architectural language. A new Town Square acts as the anchor from which streets and areas with unique and identifiable characters radiate.






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  #47  
Old Posted May 15, 2004, 5:14 AM
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^^

"Eek" is right. Town square my ass. It's a waterfront mall bisected by a 6-lane highway. Booo.
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  #48  
Old Posted May 15, 2004, 5:29 AM
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A couple of pics I took today of the new Artist Lofts being built at 4th & Alamitos. They have 15ft ceilings, I would love to own one of these. They have also been designed to have retail on the bottom floor.




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  #49  
Old Posted May 17, 2004, 4:56 PM
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They're okay, the spaces inside I'm sure are awesome, but what's with the 1980s primary-colored bathroom tile on the outside? I hope they put cewl stores over there, I'm a couple blocks away, be good to have nice retail.
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  #50  
Old Posted May 19, 2004, 11:52 PM
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Promenade Lofts (aka 3rd Street Lofts)



Architect: KTGY Group, Irvine, CA

Project Size:

30 units - 1,000 s.f. up to 2,500 s.f.
7 stories, ground floor commercial

Project Concept:

City Place is a mixed-use redevelopment masterplan in the heart of downtown long Beach. The project includes eight (8) city-blocks, including 450,000 s.f. of retail and 330 units of high-end market rate condominiums and apartments. Developers Diversified Realty is the developer for all retail portions of the project.

As part of this mixed-use project, Promenade Lofts will provide a combination of flats, lofts with internal mezzanines, and penthouse units as part of the for-sale housing component, starting at $259,990 and ranging up to $599,000.
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  #51  
Old Posted May 23, 2004, 9:48 PM
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Construction on the West Ocean is scheduled to begin by the end of summer (they dont like being specific i guess). The sizes of the units will range from 950 to 3,200 square feet and the prices start at 400,000 and go over one million.
i wish i could live there, maybe i should go mow some lawns for some spare change.
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  #52  
Old Posted May 26, 2004, 1:31 AM
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Re: 3rd Street Lofts:

I'm assuming these will go on that bare ass lot full of mulch between the north side of 3rd and the parking garages, next to the, um...Mrs. Fields. Finally, a decent improvement in that immediate area. Buy a 400K loft just steps from Walmart, with sweeping vistas of parking garage! LOL!
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  #53  
Old Posted May 27, 2004, 11:56 PM
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Aquatic Festival Pools

Adjacent to the Long Beach Arena, two above ground FINA approved 50 meter pools will be used for the events. The main pool stadium will seat up to 10,000 spectators, athletes and media.

Club boxes, available for all events, will be poolside in the first 3 rows of the bleachers, with room for 10 persons. Hospitality suites that can accommodate 30 persons will be in each corner of the pool. Full catering services will be available in both packages.

The warm up pool will be adjacent to the main pool, with locker room facilities, massage tents and athlete lounges.

Adjacent to the spectator bleachers will be a food court as well as a Fan Fest Village.

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  #54  
Old Posted May 28, 2004, 8:12 PM
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What's Up: Pine scene, north and south
By Tim Grobaty
Staff columnist

OPENING THE VAULT: It's a close race between construction workers hitting the final nail on the head and the opening notes of Franky Perez opening for headliner Jonny Lang at the Friday night grand opening for Long Beach's newest club, Vault 350, at 350 Pine Ave., in downtown Long Beach. According to a spokesman at the $4million nightclub, everything's A-OK for the Lang show.

Assuming that's true, $49.50 gets you in to the swanky venue's debut show at 8 o'clock Friday. Expect to pass workers coming out on your way in, because construction is coming right down to showtime. Wondering about opening- night wardrobe? We'd recommend a hard hat.

Vault 350's talent bookers, including old-hand Ken Phebus, are busy signing an eclectic mix of performers for the club. Eventually, the club's management hopes to pack the Vault with 25 shows per month.

So far, the spring and summer shows include the Temptations Revue, June 11 ($60); Mary Chapin Carpenter with Jim Lauderdale, June 12 ($45); Avant, June 25 ($39.50); K-Ci & Jo Jo, July 9 ($39.50); Freddie Jackson, July 10 ($27.50); the United We Funk Tour, with Dazz Band, S.O.S., Con Funk Shun and Midnight Star, July 17 ($30); the Ohio Players, July 24 ($30); the B- 52s, Aug. 13 ($75); and KRS-One, Aug. 21 ($20).

For tickets, try the Vault's Web site (also being hammered at with frequent construction closures): www.vault350.com , or call the box office, (562) 590-5566. DANCING AT THE PIKE: While Pine Avenuists hope the Vault will pull night life farther north on downtown Long Beach's eternally rocky road, new openings at the Pike at Rainbow Harbor continue to draw attention and money, and crowds to the south side of Ocean Boulevard.

The latest potential major player down the hill is V20, a huge, dazzling and wildly versatile venue/restaurant at the Pike's west end.

The $10 million, 30,000-square- foot facility is going after the lucrative convention market on weekdays, and catering to a nightlife-hungry, dance-happy public crowd on Fridays and Saturdays after its grand opening June 24-26 (the opening night is by invitation only).

Like the Vault, V20 (a condensed way of saying Venue by the Water) will be equipped with a $1million sound system, though the venue will, on Fridays and Saturdays anyway, steer clear of touring musical acts and stick to DJs and dance.

The balance of the time, well, they'll do just about anything you want and can afford in the way of special events for large groups.

"If someone wants to do a theme event, say a Mardi Gras Night, we can do that all the way down to the waiters' clothes, the menu, the props and the lighting,' says V20 CEO Michael Viscuso.

Unless otherwise arranged, the food, says Viscuso, will be pan-Pacific cuisine with a full sushi menu served in the venue's restaurant that, he says, is "semi-private, but very interactive with the dance floor.'

The restaurant and the club's four bars will open at 5 p.m. Fridays and 6 p.m. Saturdays. Jazz bands will perform for diners in the early part of the evenings,' says Viscuso. "Around 10:30, the lights will go down, the music will go up, we'll clear away the tables and it turns into a dance club until 2 a.m. closing.'

Viscuso is a seasoned pro when it comes to nightlife. Among his other properties are J.J.'s Steakhouse in Old Pasadena, and On Broadway Events Center, E Street Alley, Red Circle Cafe and Deco's, all in San Diego
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  #55  
Old Posted Jun 15, 2004, 6:28 PM
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Condo towers in works

$160 million project on Ocean to bring 246 luxury units, alter skyline.

By Don Jergler
Staff writer

LONG BEACH — Construction on a $160 million, high-rise condominium project being called West Ocean is set to begin in September, and would-be buyers for the upscale units in the downtown towers can put down deposits next month.
Originally under development as part of the 9.5-acre Camden Harbor View project, the 246-unit development is going up on the site of what is now a pay parking lot near the Pike at Rainbow Harbor, at Ocean Boulevard and Chestnut Street.

Camden sold the site for an undisclosed sum to Intracorp Los Angeles LLC, a developer of several large residential projects in the Southland.

The towers will dramatically change the city's skyline. The largest of the two towers will be built to 29 stories, slightly shorter than the World Trade Center across from the project on Ocean Boulevard. The 27-story World Trade Center stands at 397 feet, making in Long Beach's tallest office building. The second tower will measure 22 stories.

Estimated selling prices are between $400,000 and $1 million for the units, which range from 950 square feet to 3,200 square feet. The project includes 3,400 square feet of retail along Ocean Boulevard. Expected completion is 2006, according to Intracorp.

The company purchased the property about a year ago. Executives declined to discuss the price, but said the proximity to the Pike, the Aquarium of the Pacific and Pine Avenue was a deciding factor in the purchase.

"'We just love the downtown Long Beach area, it's a very good urban environment," said Peter Lauener, Intracorp's president and chief executive officer.

Amenities at Ocean West include a pool, spa, barbecue areas, a club room, a fitness center and meeting and conference areas, according to the company.

In 1999, Camden Property Trust paid $20 million for the property. Camden is a 538-unit waterfront apartment complex that comprises two nine-story buildings and four buildings with four stories. It began leasing in 2003. Unit rents range from $1,200 to $1,800 for one-bedroom units, and two-bedroom units go for $2,200 to $2,800.

Camden executives were not immediately available for comment.

Privately held Intracorp has more than $300 million in project developments in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The prime contractor on Ocean West is San Diego-based Ledcor. The architect is John Perkins of Perkins and Associates of Vancouver.

Visit www.westoceanlb.com for more information.
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  #56  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2004, 12:01 AM
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Plans for a 600-foot-tall tower on the waterfront in Long Beach have been toppled.

Russell Geyser, principal of the Geyser Group, has been shopping a “Tower of Toscana” project since last November. Geyser said the $100 million tower would become a landmark and tourist draw comparable to the Seattle Space Needle or the Eiffel Tower.

Geyser’s proposal was to take about 3.5 acres off Shoreline Drive currently being used for boat owner parking at the Downtown Shoreline Marina. The plans called for covered parking for the boat owners, a retail complex around the tower and several levels of restaurants, bars and other entertainment at the top.

But this week Geyser said he no longer was interested in doing business in Long Beach. He said in published reports that a failed plan for a restaurant in or near Alamitos Bay Landing forced the decision.

At the same time, the city’s Community Development Department has been circulating a Request For Proposals to create a development strategy for the land north of Shoreline Drive across from the tower site. That land — east of the temporary swimming stadium and the Long Beach Arena — currently is a surface parking lot. It is considered the last developable land on the downtown waterfront.

The deadline for the RFP was June 1. It had nothing to do with the tower proposal, according to Amy Bodek, Community Development project manager.

“I’ll say unequivocally that the RFP had nothing to do with the demise of the tower,” Bodek said. “In fact, this RFP wasn’t for development projects at all. It was for developing a strategy for dealing with the land.”

Much of the still-in-progress Pike at Rainbow Harbor commercial development west of the Long Beach Convention Center is on land that once was a parking lot north of Shoreline Drive. Bodek said that there has not been a decision whether to develop the property east of the convention center and arena at all. Options include banking the land for future convention center expansion, retail, hotel or parking uses or no development at all.

Geyser spent much of this spring presenting the Tower of Toscana proposal, complete with a professionally produced video, to Long Beach civic and business groups. He has said he already has spent $350,000 on the project.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh well...at least construction will start on the city's new second tallest soon
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  #57  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2004, 12:05 AM
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Thanks for the post!

Maybe he can shop the tower to downtown LA???

Here are some more details to the failed plan, thanks to the Cheesecake Factory:

Planned space needle scuttled



By Don Jergler and Joe Segura

LONG BEACH -- Long Beach's very own 600-foot space needle has vanished in a scuffle between city planners and the developer, who blame one another for the loss of a $100million project that would have reportedly created more than 300 jobs.
The lofty plans for the Tower of Toscana near Shoreline Village began to crumble when planners and the developer failed to agree on leasing property in Alamitos Bay for a Cheesecake Factory restaurant in an apparently unrelated deal, according to sources close to the negotiations.

Developer Russell Geyser, of the Encinitas-based specialty retail development Geyser Group, said his talks with city planners led him to believe he had an exclusive negotiating agreement for the project. "They kept on saying 'Trust us' and 'Don't worry," he said.

However, a Community Development document dated April 21, obtained Monday by the Press- Telegram, shows the city is seeking proposals for a development strategy for the Tidelands area in downtown, which includes the tower site a move that aggravated the strained relations between city planners and Geyser.

Community Development Director Melanie Fallon said there was no effort to undermine Geyser's tower plan. However, she explained, the city is looking for a development strategy for that shoreline area, but the tower site was included only as an potential alternative to Geyser's plan.

"We decided to take this opportunity and do, concurrently, a planning study to make sure we had enough parking,' Fallon said.

The two sides agreed that talks over a proposed Cheesecake Factory restaurant at Alamitos Bay tainted the deal.

Michael Conway, manager of Property Services Bureau, blames the developer for killing the deal.

"The last he advised us,' Conway said, "is he would be shopping his project around.'

He said Geyser was supposed to bring in a Cheesecake Factory. But Geyser had an alternate concept called The Garage, an upscale restaurant being developed by a pair of established restaurateurs.

Geyser said he pulled the plug after the restaurant deal went sour. "If the city doesn't treat you well on one deal, it won't treat you right on another site,' he added.

The developer said he's already put in $350,000 of his own money on the Tower deal.

The Geyser Group had unveiled its $100 million project last November to construct a tower similar to Seattle's Space Needle on a 3.5-acre site, which would include businesses, stores and a parking structure for marina boat owners and visitors. The tower was pegged for the area south of Shoreline Drive, west of Green Park.

The plan ran into opposition from the boat owners, who complained that the project would disrupt the activities of the marina area.

Fallon said she believes the city can move ahead with development plans without Geyser.
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  #58  
Old Posted Jun 22, 2004, 7:23 PM
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That tower was a joke of a monstrosity. I'm glad to see it go, even though it's annoying that the City dicked him around. He should build something else downtown, not that theme park south of Ocean.
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  #59  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2004, 10:37 PM
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Designs on the waterfront

By Don Jergler and Joe Segura
Staff writers

LONG BEACH - A high tide of enthusiasm from the month-long Aquatic Festival is building momentum, and its legacy could splash over into a new chapter of growth in Long Beach's downtown waterfront sector.
A new request for proposals to study potential development of the "Downtown Tidelands' area the sprawling section south of Ocean Boulevard and adjacent to the Convention and Entertainment Center has attracted 11 consulting firms bidding to map out the city's ambitious plans for what's believed to be the premier chunk of undeveloped shoreline real estate in the region.

There's a long review process before any proposal can move off the drawing board, since it will need to pass muster with local panels and the City Council, the state Coastal Commission and possibly the state Lands Commission.

Environmentalists and community activists said they were caught off guard by the city's move, but vowed to be diligent in monitoring any development on public-trust turf an area that received no comment in the staff report.

"I think it's totally inappropriate that one of the things they're not looking at is the restrictions of development to approved public-trust uses,' said Don May, president of the environmental group California Earth Corps. "The city has pushed that envelope more than anywhere else in the state.'

The prime focus is a 20-acre parking lot connected with the Long Beach Arena, the site for the temporary 10,000-seat Charter All Digital Aquatics Centre the host for the Aquatic Festival, which includes the upcoming U.S. Olympic Team Trials-Swimming.

Combined, the events are considered to be the nation's largest swim event and are expected to draw 115,000 spectators from all over the world, generating an economic impact of $15 million for area businesses. That was enough to get City Hall thinking.

Now, the lot may also become the site of Long Beach's newest development. Ideas for the parcel have ranged from a now-dead proposal for a towering space needle to an expansion of the Long Beach Convention Center to a permanent aquatics center.

The request was issued two months ago. The recruited consultant's primary focus will be the arena's parking lot, while the surrounding secondary areas will include the Rainbow Lagoon connected with the Hyatt Regency, the marina parking lot, and the connecting Green Park.

Because they're secondary, those areas won't necessarily be included, but they must be accounted for in development plans. The arena itself is considered secondary in the request, because of lease agreements with the city that relate to the surrounding area.

Proposals were submitted by the June 1 deadline, and quoted prices range between $175,000 and $350,000 to develop a comprehensive plan for the Tidelands area, according to city staff.

A steering committee of city officials and business people has been formed, and the process of selecting a consultant is expected to begin in July.

Project funding

Any project in the area could be footed solely by a developer. Or, a project could get added funding from the Redevelopment Agency, or the Tidelands Fund, which receives oil revenue, as well as 10 percent of the net income from the Port of Long Beach.

The city is a trustee on the fund, which has an annual operating budget of up to $55 million, according to Mike Killebrew, the city's acting finance director.

Tidelands projects include the Pike, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Queen Mary.

Tidelands funds are solely for use in the tidelands area, and are earmarked for recreational uses. They helped build a $43 million parking garage for the Pike.

Tourist candy

No parameters, including cost, have been set for development on the terrain.

However, those involved in the process all agree they want the area to be used to attract tourists, much like the nearby Pike at Rainbow Harbor, and the Aquatic Festival.

In fact, one of the ideas outlined in the request is for a permanent aquatics stadium.

"There's been discussions about a recreational use, like a permanent swim facility,' said Melanie Fallon, director of Community Development, the city department that issued the request. "This is a really important property for the city.'

Offers from developers for the area have been surfacing regularly, especially since the Pike entertainment and shopping center is up and running, said Fallon. She credits the aquatics event and frequent unsolicited proposals made before the city launched its new development strategy for prompting City Hall to act and issue the request for development strategies.

Bigger conventions

Other possible uses outlined in the city's proposal request also include expanding the Hyatt Regency at Pine Avenue and Shoreline Drive, or the Long Beach Convention Center at 300 E. Ocean Blvd.

The city is eager to increase its tourist trade, and enhancement of the convention facilities both in meeting halls capacity and hotel rooms could help turn the tide of the past few years, when the city has lost a handful of big conventions that required larger centers to handle larger gatherings.

The Action Sports Retailer show bailed to San Diego two years ago after the crowd of 17,000 it drew could no longer be accommodated at the Long Beach locale.

Most notably, the owner of the Fred Hall's Fishing Tackle and Boat Show stated he was considering relocating it because it was outgrowing the center.

"We can't grow anymore,' Bart Hall, son of Fred, who's now deceased, told a Press- Telegram reporter in March as the show was about to get under way.

Hall said he was considering moving the show to the Anaheim Convention Center, which has 815,000 square feet of exhibit space, more than double Long Beach's 350,000- square-foot center. Hall doesn't disclose attendance figures, but estimates for attendance range from more than 30,000 to 300,000.

While Hall eventually agreed to hold the show in Long Beach for another five years, losing conventions due to lack of space is growing concern.

"We have lost several conventions because they've expanded in their size and we haven't,' said Steven Goodling, president and chief executive officer for the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

But enlarging the center has its drawbacks.

Convention floor space has increased nearly 60 percent nationwide over the past four years, according to industry experts.

"Currently, we have created a great niche within the convention segment, and that is a medium-sized convention can come into our city and own it,' Goodling said. "By expanding our convention center, it would need to be determined if the market exists amongst the other buildout over the last four years.'

Off limits

There are parcels in the focused section that could be all but off limits for any proposed development project since proposals for large development would prompt legal challenges from either environmentalists or state agencies mandated to protect public-access land and rights.

Among the two top hot spots: the Rainbow Lagoon, adjacent to the Hyatt Hotel, and the Marina Green Park along with its parking area.

Charles Posner, planner for the state Coastal Commission, said a tidelands agreement and the city's local coastal plan put limits on what could be developed in the Rainbow Lagoon area, which is considered wetlands. He added that the state Coastal Act would be a stronger potential hurdle, since that law does not allow displacement of wetlands for commercial or residential projects.

"It's protected,' he said.

Violations of the Coastal Act often prompt court challenges.

The parkland is a public-trust area and protected by the local coastal plan, according to Posner.

"All park lands are protected ... to remain park lands in perpetuity,' he said.

A push to develop the park would require a 2-to-1 ratio trade-off for public land in another part of the city. That would include any development of the area set aside for the park's parking spots but not the slots for marina parking, the commission planner explained.

"The city has made it very difficult to do anything in park lands other than park uses,' Posner added.

Parking issues

Parking will be a key component of the planning, according to the city.

The focus of the parking study will be east of Pine Avenue and south of Ocean Boulevard.

"This is the last major remaining development opportunity site in this vicinity,' the report notes.

However, the future consultant will also review parking supply and demand for the Pike project area, to assure the study is complete.

The selected consultant will review data used as part of the Downtown Long Beach parking study, and apply the findings along with a computer parking model that was created for the Pike project.

There's generally plenty of parking in the downtown shoreline complex.

Parking blocs can be found at all corners north and south, east and west of the complex's crossroads at Pine Avenue and Shoreline Drive.

One large bloc of parking spaces is taken up by boat owners with slips in the marinas.

Development north of Shoreline Drive should not have any impact on the boat owners' parking arrangements, according to Mike Malbon, a member of the city's Marine Advisory Commission.

However, he said there could be new concerns if any development is pegged for south of Shoreline.

The city's report identifies the "peripheral stakeholders' as the Aquarium of the Pacific, Shoreline Village, Downtown Marina boat owners and the Pike retail/entertainment complex.

Malbon believes that the "peripheral stakeholders' status could change, if the development gets a foothold south of Shoreline especially in the marina parking sections.

That would make the boat owners "major stakeholders,' he asserted, adding that the Marine Advisory Commission would most likely review the development proposal and make its recommendation to the City Council.

Without any new development, Malbon said, visitors generally cause only minor parking problems, generally during special events.

"They have their own spaces,' he said of visitors. "And that works out just fine.'

Traffic issues

At this point, there's no development plan on the drawing board to worry about.

Ditto for traffic problems linked to any possible development proposal except for one spot at Pine and Ocean, where westbound vehicles become gridlocked attempting to make a left turn into the southbound Pine Avenue lanes, according to Malbon.

"When they close down Shoreline for for an event, Pine and Ocean become really congested,' he added.

City Councilman Dan Baker, whose district encompasses the Tidelands area, wants a study of the area to examine ways to reconfigure the eastern end of Seaside Way bordering the arena convention complex to mitigate the impact of traffic from the Convention Center on residents.

If a proposed development leads to improvements of in that complex area, local residents would be happy, the councilman predicted.

"This really could be an upside for the folks that live in those buildings on Ocean,' Baker said.

Grand Prix factor

Other concerns about inserting a new project in the area is that major events' use of the parking lot could be driven off.

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is one such event that uses the parking lot.

Drivers use the lot as a staging area, along with pit crews, garages and concessions during the city's largest and most spectacular sports event, which draws about 200,000 people over three days each spring.

"We've asked the Grand Prix folks to be part of our team,' Fallon said, adding that other nearby spots could be found to stage the event, if necessary.

Preserving a Grand Prix staging area in the vicinity would be given top priority in any proposal, Fallon asserted.

Marina vista

One key issue, according to Malbon, would be the public's view of the marinas and other shoreline facilities the same concern he raised with the recent proposal for a massive tower similar to Seattle's Space Needle, labeled by the developer as the Tower of Toscana.

While the project was hailed as the "crowning jewel of the Long Beach renaissance,' it tumbled within months of its unveiling last November, when developer Russell Geyser head of an Encinitas- based specialty retail development company, Geyser Group pulled the plug on it. He was upset, in part, because of a dispute over the souring talks on an unrelated restaurant development deal at Alamitos Bay.

The tower's deal was given a blunt obit.

"As much as anything can be dead, I think that would be dead,' Fallon said.

Before the deal died, however, Malbon raised concerns about the tower's dimensions, and he strongly suggested planners consider alternative sites, where there would be less disruption of established uses.

New development south of Shoreline could breathe new life into the same visibility concerns.

"It's an open-space area,' Malbon said. "It (new development) could have tremendous visual impact.'

Legal quagmire?

Development projects in the shoreline area all public trust tidelands turf can easily get entangled in litigation by environmentalists.

The California Earth Corps, for instance, has been tangling with the Long Beach since the fall of 2001 over the Queensway Bay land-use exchange. The group, headed by May, asserted the city and state violated state laws by not performing an environmental impact report on the land involved in the deal, adding that the swap didn't meet requirements for exchanging development rights on public-trust land.

Community activist Bry Myown, who maintains a vigil eye on coastal and port issues, said any potential project could most likely avoid legal challenges, if it benefits tourists and residents alike a plan that will be environmentally friendly and offer affordable activities for the public.

That mix, in the end, will most likely benefit local merchants and restaurants, she said, adding waterfront facilities are big draws pumping new cash into merchants' coffers.

"When I leave the (shoreline) spots, I'd go to a restaurant,' she explained.

"I think people would come here to see the beach and spend money for something we've already built.'
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Old Posted Jun 29, 2004, 11:47 PM
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longbeachnik longbeachnik is offline
Exploring the Cosmos
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mount Vernon, Wa.
Posts: 448
Screw all this enviromental talk...what worse use could be gotten out of this huge chunk of land that isnt as bad as the parking lot currently there?

Personally, I'd like to see a stadium of some kind. Demolish the old Arena and build something really state-of-the-art. Then we can go on and get a real professional sports team and lure all the hot musical acts.

Yup-new Arena!
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