Los Angeles Metro Triangle

Wilshire Center Business Improvement Corp. - Working Paper -  9/20/99
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Triangle (or the Triangle)
Draft Concept
Downtown-Wilshire Center -Hollywood

Common Thread

The Red Line

• History
• Urban lifestyle
• Opportunity
• Live and Work
• Urban Core

People nationwide are starting to move back to urban city centers. A recent survey by the Brookings Institution of 25 cities found that, on average, the populations of major city centers will increase 72% by 2010. The city of Houston’s urban population is expected to grow over 300%, but Los Angeles has the lowest projected city center increase – only 2%. Why is that? And how can we change that figure?

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Triangle of Downtown-Wilshire Center-Hollywood represents the city’s urban core; the melting pot where historic Los Angeles meets its vibrant future. The "Triangle" provides the complete Los Angeles city experience.

People are moving into the city center, particularly the Gen Xers in search of something different, something authentic, something more like a "real city". Night spots like the "HMS Bounty," "Palm Tree L.A.," "Lucky Seven" and "Ciudad" attract a younger, more "hip" crowd than many places on the Westside and the Valley. In addition, the Wilshire Center and Hollywood have historic entertainment ties, with celebrities living in Hollywood and Wilshire Center and flocking to hot nightspots like the Cocoanut Grove.

Today the Metropolitan Triangle, Downtown-Wilshire Center-Hollywood, offers an authentic urban lifestyle. It provides a mix of history, culture and ethnic diversity that really can’t be found elsewhere in the city.

Add to that the fact that these areas are undergoing massive revitalization and are linked by the Metrorail, and you have a community that is bustling with energy and primed for an exciting future.

This Triangle presents a unique and exciting marketing opportunity for the three areas that make it up.

Each area has its own unique identity, offerings and appeal:

The Downtown seems very interested in positioning the area as the financial center of Los Angeles. Cultural development and entertainment are also located in the area. Downtown has many different types of real estate to offer – office, retail and residential.

Primary highlights:

• New developments – Staples Center, Disney Concert Hall, Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels, etc.
• Ease of Access – four major freeways, Red & Blue Lines, commuter trains, MTA buses, DASH, (future) Alameda Corridor enhancements
• "Cultural Corridor" – Music Center, Colburn School, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the planned Disney Concert Hall on Grand Ave.
• Shopping – Garment District, Jewelry District, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Olvera Street
• Sports – Staples Center (future home of the Lakers, Kings & Clippers), close to Dodger Stadium

Hollywood’s focuses on the inherent value of its name and its historic ties to the entertainment industry. The goals of Hollywood seem to be slightly different from those of Downtown and Wilshire Center: increase retail/hotel activity as well as lower office vacancy rates. The website has an extensive listing of available commercial property, most of which are either historic buildings or entertainment/production facilities. The site also lists theaters available for rent. The historic properties outline their glamorous pasts.

Primary highlights:

• Entertainment mystique – glamour of Old Hollywood (Max Factor Bldg., etc)
• New development – Trizec Hahn Hollywood & Highland project
• MTA Red Line development
• Proximity to entertainment – Mann’s Chinese, El Capitan, museums, etc.

Wilshire Center is a long established commercial and residential district in the core of Los Angeles. Wilshire Center is a regional center for various interrelated commercial office, shopping, residential, and cultural activities. The greater Wilshire Center encompasses a three-mile radius from Normandie and Wilshire which includes a total employment is about 488,000 with about 636,000 residents. It has Los Angeles' most ethnically and economically diverse population.

Primary Highlights:

• Wilshire Center is at the center of everything.

• Ethnic diversity – Only a short distance from Koreatown, Wilshire Center benefits from a melting pot of cultures, and is home to numerous Korean dining and retail establishments.
• Housing – Wilshire Center is home to many glamorous apartment buildings, like the Gaylord and the Talmadge, which are attracting young, urban residents. In general, Wilshire Center has a large and diverse residential population.
• Residential/business population density -- With approximately 1 million people living and working within a three-mile radius, Wilshire Center is the most densely populated area on the West Coast. Providing a potential labor force and ready population of customers.
• Preserved architectural integrity – The Wilshire Center has done an admirable job of preserving its architectural heritage in the form of many recognizable landmarks, such as the Wiltern Theater and the Bullock’s Wilshire Building. The Wilshire Center area has more historic landmarks than any other area of the city.

To capitalize on this triangle concept and encourage participation, interdependencies and complementary offerings should be highlighted. The "Metro Triangle" or "Red Triangle" areas linked by the Metro Red Line are Los Angeles’ urban core. With residential and commercial sectors all within easy walking/public transit (Red Line) distance, it is the antithesis of suburban sprawl – everything negative that Los Angeles is known for.

Downtown, Wilshire Center and Hollywood are the three primary business districts in central Los Angeles; if they band together they can help keep businesses in LA proper and stem the tide of those flocking to Santa Monica, Pasadena, Glendale, et al. To a certain extent they do appeal to different markets: Downtown is primarily corporate, Hollywood has the entertainment, retail and tourism focus, and Wilshire Center appeals to small & mid-size businesses, new media/Internet companies, as well as the entertainment industry. Each of these areas could benefit from joint marketing. For example: when approaching a business to move into Hollywood, the BID could cite the area’s proximity to Wilshire Center and Downtown and all services located in those areas.

Wilshire Center and Hollywood have very similar residential populations. There is a young urban professional population, as well as an ethnically diverse component. They have high populations of Latino residents who probably travel Downtown to Broadway and the Garment District, etc. Ten percent of Hollywood’s residents and more than one-third of Wilshire Center’s are Asian/Pacific Islander, and these populations may travel to Wilshire Center/Koreatown and Downtown/Chinatown/Little Tokyo. Many of Wilshire Center’s hip, young residents work in Hollywood and frequent clubs, movie theaters and other nightspots in the area. Residents from both areas travel Downtown to restaurants and cultural venues. Young professionals who live Downtown may work in Wilshire Center or Hollywood and frequent entertainment and other venues in those areas.

All three areas are striving to be "24-hour" areas like New York, with live/work populations. None of the areas have yet fully achieved this status, but working together, they may speed this process.

The Triangle is identified by compact development that provides for a full range of economic and social services, including housing, ground floor retail, community and entertainment facilities, grocery stores and cafes. Moreover, this area contains a safe and clean environment with attractive settings for living and working. By integrating life around MTA transit, the Triangle has the opportunity to reduce automobile congestion and consequently to better the City's air quality, provide a more efficient land use pattern and create a better quality of life for all Los Angeles residents. Besides the net reduction of internally generated traffic, a good jobs/housing balance strengthens the sense of community and neighborhood and provides for a better overall environment both socially and economically.

4. What Can We Do Together?

This "Triangle" terminology really could act as an umbrella marketing theme, utilized by the MTA, brokers, businesses located there, residential complexes, etc. Over time, through media and advertising, this could become part of the city’s vernacular. The metropolitan area would be poised to formidably take on the Westside, Valley, Pasadena, etc., as the "place to be."

Some specific ideas include:

• Providing special night discounts
• Joint Holiday programs
• Ice rink at Pershing Square
• Hollywood Lane Parade
• Carolers/Street Performers at Wilshire Center – Neon light show
• Paint the Town Red – Red Line promotion

Other thoughts:

• Wilshire Center workers ride to meetings in Downtown and Hollywood or to the Music Center
• Downtown and Hollywood workers go to Atlas and the Wiltern
• Wilshire Center and Hollywood residents shop Downtown
• Wilshire Center and Downtown residents go to movie theaters in Hollywood
• This marketing effort extends outside the Triangle to encourage people to move to the urban core
• Each area doesn’t necessarily have to offer the amenities to attract people from the other areas; it can "house" the new "recruits" that will travel to other areas and vice versa.