The approval marks the sale of the last north Long Beach properties formerly owned by the City’s redevelopment agency (RDA) and recently owned by the City through the Long Beach Successor Agency Long Range Property Management Plan. The project includes land that totals 176,613 square feet near the intersection of South Street and Atlantic Avenue.
“We’re thrilled to welcome The LAB to our community,” said Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who represents the 9th District. “They now round out the trio of retail development partners on the North Atlantic Corridor, Frontier Real Estate Investment and Westland Real Estate Group, who are tasked with revitalizing the Atlantic corridor. The LAB’s art-based, town-center style development will complement and be anchored by the new Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, a focal point of the Uptown Renaissance. It will be a development like no other in the city of Long Beach, and we’re proud that it will be based in north Long Beach.”
Eighth District Councilmember Al Austin also lauded the sale.
“The investment of the LAB in north Long Beach will be a game changer not only for uptown neighborhoods, but for all of Long Beach,” Austin said. “It will make the entire city stronger.”
The LAB (an acronym for Little American Business) has developed and operates other innovative retail establishments in Southern California. According to its website, The LAB “weaves community, culture and commerce into real-estate innovation and place making.”
The company has made a name for itself in Orange County, particularly with its “Anti Mall” in Costa Mesa, a shopping center that opened in the mid 1990s to target youth who were discontent with the “homogenization of conventional malls,” according to The LAB.
The property had once been a military night-goggle factory, but The LAB deconstructed its buildings and recycled the materials into walls and planters for the new center.
In 2002, The LAB opened The Camp in Costa Mesa as “the first ‘green’ shopping center of its kind,” according to the company. The Camp targets outdoor and health enthusiasts, and it features certified redwood, indigenous landscaping, an environmental percolation system, a grass roof and water ponds.
The LAB boasts that its endeavors demand a deep-rooted examination of local personality and careful placement of hand-selected quality businesses to complement the existing environment, “yet excite the senses.” The company touts partnerships with local entrepreneurs, artisans, educators, neighbors and trade organizations as being paramount to its success, in addition to the incorporation of public space for the invigoration and support of local culture.
This week’s transaction assembled the former Long Beach RDA properties, 18 of which are classified as for-sale properties and 30 designated as future-development properties, in the North Village development into one purchase and sale agreement.
All for-sale properties are being sold at fair market value, or $4,363,200, according to Austin’s office. The future-development properties are being sold for $2,580,000, for a total purchase price of $6,943,200. The LAB will provide a down payment and promissory note to the City while completing the North Village development concept, according to Austin’s office.
After the completion of the agreement, the LAB will begin the entitlement process, including the City’s review of the project design. After the entitlements have been approved, the LAB anticipates 18 months to complete construction, with an expected opening in summer of 2019.
Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, said he is “thrilled” for north Long Beach and the surrounding area.
“With the library— and what [The LAB] has planned— this is a major injection of economic development and possibilities for north Long Beach,” Cohn said. “You’re going to actually see people walking and see people coming to north Long Beach. From there, there will be other development, because energy begets energy. When it’s loaded with all the shops and food places and the library across the way, and maybe restaurants and banks, and whatever the other services that are coming, you’re going to take a sleepy, little corridor and turn it into something amazing.”
Tasha Hunter, who manages the Uptown Business District, within which the newly sold properties are located, said the new developments will bring new life to an area that has been “blighted” for some time.
“It’s going to change the entire face of north Long Beach,” Hunter said. “And it further is a demonstration that the renaissance is happening— as we call it, the Uptown Renaissance.”
Hunter said the sale, as well as the new Michelle Obama Library and renovations at Houghton Park and other sites in her district, will increase the walkability of the area.
“It’s going to help stimulate the economy up here with bringing new businesses in,” she said. “It’s going to create a lot more foot traffic, and it’s also going to serve a need that a lot of our businesses and our residents and community have asked for. They have specifically stated that they would like to be able to walk to their places and sources of entertainment, like they do in Bixby. We’re happy to have business thriving in all of Long Beach, but it’s time for north Long Beach to receive some of that.”
