Extreme makeover, city edition: after years of planning for an ArtsPark, luxury condos and revitalized retail, the shovels hit the dirt for downtown Hollywood's redevelopment

South Florida CEO, March, 2005

Sushi Blues Cafe has become a little less funky. And that is a good thing, say its owners. The landmark restaurant has been serving food and music in downtown Hollywood for 17 years. In 2003, it moved from Young Circle to a larger space and underwent a makeover to attract a broader clientele.

Sushi Blues' old space had "a bohemian kind of atmosphere, which not everyone can appreciate," says Junko Maslak, who owns the restaurant with her husband. The new space on Harrison Street "attracted a different type of customer who would never come to the small, cramped bohemian-style place," she says.

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Downtown Hollywood is seeking just such a makeover for itself. By adding a 12-acre ArtsPark and luxury condominiums, among other things, the city hopes to attract more up-scale visitors and residents to downtown, while retaining some of its village-like atmosphere. The historical integrity of Hollywood Boulevard, a section of which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is a key concern of the revitalization effort.

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The planned ArtsPark is the centerpiece of downtown redevelopment and it anchors the east side of downtown at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and US-1. A theater and arts education complex that spills out to an outdoor artthemed green space is planed there. Broward County, the City of Hollywood and the Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency have pledged approximately $11 million for the green areas and walkways of the park, and $3 million to re-vamp the road around the park, says CRA director Jim Edwards. But the budget for the projects is between $5 million to $6 million short. Edwards says the city is asking for more money from the county and is considering some design changes to reduce costs. "And I believe there will be some private fundraising involved as well," he says.

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Work on the green areas and walkways is set to begin in June. Shortly after that, the road around the circle will be revamped. Parking will be moved from inside the circle to the outer edge of the street around the circle, close to current and projected retail and restaurant space. A wide new median will buffer the parking lot and sidewalks from the street.

"Right now, you're walking on the sidewalk next to all these lanes of traffic," says Bernard Zyscovich, president of Miami-based architecture and urban planning firm Zyscovich Inc., who consults for the city. With the new design, "The park is really more of a destination, and the perimeter of the circle is more for strolling," he says.

While the parking, road and green space plans are on track, there is no schedule yet for building the under-funded ArtsPark structures. That does not matter, says CRA director Edwards: "To the casual viewer, everything will be completed, even though the buildings are not."

Finishing the entire ArtsPark, though, may not be merely optional. "The ArtsPark is really the catalyst for [our] whole project," says Patricia Peretz, co-developer of the Hart Project, a mixed-use complex on Young Circle. Peretz says she is not the only developer attracted to downtown because of the park. "I think we are all, at this point, stakeholders in the ArtsPark," she says.

Hart, an abbreviation for Hollywood Art District, will be comprised of a theater and a charter arts school with a 17-story condo tower and retail. The school, the Hollywood Academy of Arts and Science, is already open; the theater, the Hollywood Playhouse (which Peretz's partner Gary Posner owns), currently has a performance troupe leasing space in it. Peretz and Posner will raze the Hollywood Bread Building to build the condo and retail tower.

Peretz calls the project a "public-private partnership with the city CRA," although she was vague about the tax incentives the city has promised. She says Hart is at least a year away from starting pre-sales, and two years away from knocking down the bread building.

Before the bread building even gets knocked down, Young Circle's first new condo project, Radius, should be complete (in summer 2006). The curvilinear-shaped building, which is currently under construction, took all of six hours to sell out (with signed contracts) its original 285 units last year, says Marc Pollack, president of Lane Investment and Development Corp., who is working with Steve Berman, president of Hollywood-based FIRM Realty, on the project. Radius has since added a floor, upping its total unit count to 311, and the partners say all of those are sold out, with prices averaging $285 per square foot. The buyers range in age from their 20s to 60s, says Pollack, and many are already Broward residents, including a number of government officials.

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The attraction? "It's that ability to walk out your front door and go eat. It's awfully accessible to both the beach and I-95," Pollack says. "And, obviously it wasn't overpriced."

Chip Abele expects the convenient location and amenities of downtown will attract buyers to two residential/commercial projects around Young Circle.