Long in the Tooth No More?

Meet the New Long Beach

By Greg Aragon

From the bow of the Queen Mary to the stern of the East Village Arts District, downtown Long Beach is riding a tidal wave of new development.

"When all the units that are under construction get built, we're going to have a whole new community in downtown," said Carolyn C. Bihn, senior planner for the city of Long Beach Zoning and Development Services.

Bihn added that a series of major projects, totaling about $1 billion and chewing up nearly 1 million sq. ft. of real estate, have this 123- year-old city of 461,522 experiencing a second childhood.

Highlighting this boom is the $130 million Pike at Rainbow Harbor, which opened six weeks ago. Owned by San Diego-based Developers Diversified Realty, the waterfront venue is located within view of the Queen Mary. And it includes a boatful of attractions: 370,000-sq.-ft. of retail/entertainment space, a 14-screen theater; 40,000-sq.-ft. GameWorks entertainment destination; town square; turn-of-the-century carousel; and a 90-ft. Ferris wheel.

"DDR is very excited about the Pike," said Janice Schuerman, the firm's regional operations manager, who was born and raised in Long Beach. "This is the No. 1 project on [our] radar."

Another large blip on DDR's radar is City Place, a $75 million mixed-use project consisting of 450,000 sq. ft. of retail and approximately 350 units of market-rate housing.

The project, built by Whittier-based Oltmans Construction Co., delivers downtown its first grocery store in 30 years, an Albertsons, and big-name retailers such as Wal-Mart, Ross and Nordstrom Rack.

Schuerman said the allure of a downtown home would be great for the estimated 16,000 young executives that come to the area to work each day.

"I believe that there is a trend of people not only working here, but living here and playing here," she added. "I think that the Chicago, San Francisco and New York way of living, where a lot of people do not have cars and take public transportation or walk to work, is the way it's going in Long Beach."

Even though the city is growing rapidly, it is still one of the last coastal locations in Southern California that is "relatively affordable in terms of for-sale homes," said Robert Zur Schmiede, city development officer. "We're pretty easily accessible from all directions, we're getting a lot of media attention and we are the terminus of the Blue Line (MTA) light-rail system."

Gordon Ip, president of Dallas, Texas-based Genesis Realty, said Long Beach's renaissance was born from necessity.

A seven-level, 2,211-stall parking garage was designed by International Parking Design and built by Bomel Construction Co. to serve patrons of the $130 million Pike at Rainbow Harbor entertainment center on Shoreline Drive in Long Beach. (photo by Paul Napolitano)

"There's no room in L.A., anywhere," said Ip, who flies all over the country looking for new development. "Long Beach is benefiting not because of itself; it's benefiting because the L.A. basin has a lot of demand and not a lot of supply, and Long Beach is halfway between Orange County and L.A. That is very helpful."

Genesis is developing a set of twin 18-story towers on Ocean Boulevard. The development, AQUA, is expected to be completed at the end of the year; Newport Beach-based Summit Builders is the general contractor. The $100 million, luxury high-rise project will add 556 market-rate condominiums to the Long Beach skyline. Prices will start in the high $200,000 range.

Zur Schmiede said the number of condos in AQUA is just part of the 1,809 residential units that are currently under construction in the 10-block downtown area. He added there are about 20,000 housing units within a mile of downtown and the city is looking at adding about 4,000 additional housing units over the next three to five years.

The Park at Harbor View, a two-phase, six-building, market-rate rental project owned by Los Angeles-based Camden Properties, is another undertaking contributing greatly to the number of new residential units.

Phase one of the $250 million project will be completed at the end of this year and includes 550 apartments (monthly rental rates will range from $1,095 to $2,400) and 25,000 sq. ft. of retail. Phase two, which is currently under conceptual site plan review, will deliver an additional 246 condos.

And there's more on the way.

Other projects contributing to the developmental upswing of downtown include the $7 million Team Lofts development project in the artsy East Village Arts District; the recently completed $15 million renovation of the Walker Building, a former department store on historic Pine Avenue; and the Temple Lofts project, the rehabilitation of the former 1927 Masonic Temple building that will yield approximately 85 residential units.

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