Eastward ho! The restoration of Hollywood: in terms of westward expansion, the city of Hollywood has been built out for years. But the redevelopment of its eastern downtown and beach area has just started to take off. What makes it attractive for developers and new residents is a low-rise, low-stress coastal environment that retains its authentic urban flavor. Plus location, location, location - Hollywood City Report

South Florida CEO, April, 2003 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

Steve MacLauchlan has seen the changes in Hollywood on a more personal basis than most. As the CEO of Hollywood Medical Center, he's in touch with a constantly evolving--and increasing--mix of patients. The hospital, which once saw large volumes of seasonal residents, has found itself busy year-round. Its private rooms, complex radiology capabilities and orthopedics practices are seeing more patients.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Probably the largest growing population of our business are people who have moved up from Miami-Dade County," says MacLauchlan. To keep pace, the 150-bed hospital spent $6 million last year on renovations, and grew its staff from 450 to 500.

MacLauchlan is experiencing one of the benefits touted by Hollywood founder Joseph Young--albeit 80 years later--in his 1920s-era advertising slogans, which invited people to a paradise situated "on the coral shore 'twixt Palm Beach and Miami," and even then attracted residents from the Gold Coast's more congested communities.

Today that sense of being a low-rise oasis between muscular downtowns to the north (Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton) and south (Aventura, Miami) is even more pronounced, and one reason Hollywood's increasingly youthful population (median age: 39.2 years) grew from 125,000 in 1990 to 141,000 in 2000.

But city leaders and economic development officials want to attract more than just a new crop of suburban families and tourists to a city where "every outdoor sport and recreation invites you," as Young also proclaimed in his ads. They are consciously directing efforts toward residential redevelopment and new business opportunities, with a focus on the city's eastern downtown and beachfront neighborhoods. Says Jacqueline Gonzalez, the city's matter-of-fact director of economic development administration: "We're going to deepen the opportunities for commercial development." Adds Stuart Litvin, president of the public-private Hollywood Business Council, "I tell companies that the city has two hearts--the downtown and the beach--and lots of soul."

All About Lifestyle

When it comes to competing with other municipalities in South Florida, Hollywood doesn't have vast funds to offer businesses the kind of gigantic tax incentives that some cities do. Instead, it sells its quality of life--and relatively low cost of living and doing business.

For example, Biscayne Productions--a full-service creative, production and postproduction facility--moved to Hollywood six years ago from North Miami. Owner Wes Malkin, whose clients include Curacao's tourism board and Sandals Resorts, was attracted by Hollywood's low-rise downtown, which has undergone a dramatic restoration and gentrification in recent years. "I moved here because I thought rents were affordable, there's good restaurants around, and there's nice shops down the street," says Malkin.

Indeed, the core of Hollywood's downtown is now an oak-lined, pedestrian-friendly promenade with brick sidewalks and an array of boutique retail establishments that include some of South Florida's only year-round jazz clubs--not to mention a weekend green market and eateries ranging from sushi bars to Argentine parilladas. It is linked to the city's 5.25-mile beachfront by palm-lined Hollywood Boulevard with its elegant historic homes.

City officials are mindful of Hollywood's unique, quaint physical ambiance, and--unlike Miami Beach officials who for years were blind to the lure of its historic Art Deco district--want to attract new business and residential development by enhancing the city's pleasant sense of a low-density "good life."

Downtown Hollywood hopes to kick its redevelopment into high gear with a new Arts Park in Young Circle Park. Broward County has committed $5 million, and the city $6 million, to build the complex inside the 10-acre circular park that anchors downtown. The building, which will replace an existing outdoor amphitheater, will have one amphitheater and one blackbox theater. The park itself will have art display space, and features such as fountains and light shows.

"People [will] come into the park and not just go and see a show, but participate in various activities that are not just arts related, but also fun," says Cynthia Miller, executive director of the non-profit Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, which was instrumental in winning the county grant.

City officials believe the arts are crucial to any redevelopment. "When we were awarded the $5 million grant from the county to do the arts park, the number of investors that were interested in coming to the city of Hollywood and doing development in the downtown increased overnight," says city manager Cameron Benson.

The Arts Park is one of a series of planned private and public developments in Hollywood. The Florida Department of Transportation will be kicking in with projects to landscape Federal Highway and add a median south of Young Circle. Also planned is an upcoming widening of US-441 in western Hollywood, and improvements to the intersection of Florida's Turnpike and Hollywood Boulevard. The city has hired a consultant to revamp the zoning on the city's four major corridors--441, Dixie Highway, Federal Highway and Hollywood Boulevard--with an eye toward creating large commercial or industrial parcels.