LTCC Endorses JA Team for Mangrove
By GWEN MURANAKA
RAFU ENGLISH EDITOR IN CHIEF
Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007

Kaji and Associates, LTSC lead team bidding to develop Mangrove site.

Photos by MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo
A view of the intersection of Alameda and First streets shows the 4.5-acre Mangrove site. The parcel, which is between the Japanese American National Museum and Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, is one of the few remaining undeveloped spaces in Little Tokyo and is the future site of a Gold Line light rail station.

Jonathan Kaji presents a proposal to the Little Tokyo Community Council on Tuesday to create a mixed-use development at Mangrove.

On Tuesday, the debate on the future of Little Tokyo came down to a simple football analogy: fourth down and one.

The Little Tokyo Community Council (LTCC) voted on Tuesday to endorse a team led by Kaji and As­sociates and the Little Tokyo Service Center to develop a 4.5-acre parcel of land at First and Alameda streets known as the Mangrove site.

For nearly one hour, the LTCC listened and debated the proposal presented by Jonathan Kaji, president of Kaji and Associates, and Ron Fong of LTSC. On Oct. 11, Kaji and Fong made a similar presentation before the LTCC’s Planning and Cultural Preservation Committee, which gave its approval.

Kaji presented his bid as the last chance for Japanese Americans to devel­op a significant parcel of Little Tokyo. The team came to the council less than two weeks after more than 100 people gathered in the same hall to come up with plans to preserve Little Tokyo, following the sale of a number of properties including the New Otani Hotel and Garden, Weller Court and Japanese Village Plaza.

“My gut says I want to go for this, but you haven’t submitted the bid to the city yet; at what point do you need this endorsement. Would it be better to wait until you’re past that first hurdle?” asked Rev. Mark Nakagawa, Centenary United Methodist Church.

“Let me put it in football terms, it’s the last quarter. It’s fourth and one, we’re right there,” Kaji said. “I think all of us know what’s been happening to this community. It’s been chopped up, diced up, parceled off, sold off. This is our last chance. It would be a tremendous value to our team to have the support of this council, of this community. Because we think as a team, we represent Little Tokyo. This is a highly competitive process that we’re facing. There are huge companies, not just U.S. companies, global real estate investors who are looking to be here in L.A. They would like nothing more than to be right next to a Gold Line station.”

The City of Los Angeles is putting Mangrove, currently a city parking lot, up for sale and set a deadline for bids for Nov. 2. In 2003, the Japanese American community successfully protested when the city proposed building a 500-bed jail and a new police headquarters at the site. The new Parker Center is currently being built at First and Main streets. The
Mangrove boundaries are Hewitt Street on the east, First Street on the south, Alameda Street on the west and Temple on the north. The lot has been appraised at a value of $36.85 million. Kaji said, if the bid is successful, it would cost “upwards of $200 million” to develop.

The proposal calls for a mixture of retail space, an office tower, residential housing including affordable housing, and parking. Partners on the development include L.A. Care Health Plan, a nonprofit community health organization, which wants to move 400 of its employees from a site in the Financial District to the Mangrove development; real estate developers Urban Partners LLC and Related Companies and architects Togawa Smith Martin Residential, Inc. and Ted Tokio Tanaka Architects.

Another partner on the team is Jerde Partnership, a Venice, Calif.-based architecture and urban planning firm which has experience developing projects in Japan including Roppongi Hills in Tokyo and Canal City Hakata, in Fukuoka. Kaji said that they hope to attract popular Japanese retailers that have yet to come to the United States and create a Japanese-themed retail space. Among the concerns raised by LTCC members was the amount of public parking that would be available for community events. Currently there are 375 parking spaces at Mangrove.

“The truth of the matter is that still it’s a piece of property that we were still looking forward to having some public parking to provide for Little Tokyo, what are your ideas of possibly increasing the number of parking spaces?” asked Brian Kito, Little Tokyo Public Safety Association and owner of Fugetsudo.

“We’re looking at creating just under 1,300 spaces. For L.A. Care, for their employees, they’re going to use a large amount during the course of the business week, however on evenings and weekends, they’re not there,” Kaji said.

The bids go to the Chief Legislative Analyst and Kaji said that they will know whether their bid is successful by the end of the year or the first quarter of next year.