Port of Los Angeles Enters into Negotiations to Redevelop Ports O’ Call Village

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has agreed to let Port of Los Angeles officials enter into exclusive negotiations with LA Ports O Call – a collaboration between The Ratkovich Company and Jerico Development – to redevelop the Ports O’Call Village, a 30-acre San Pedro waterfront property on the Port’s Main Channel and adjacent to San Pedro’s historic downtown business district.

“We applaud the Port for their vision and support in helping transform Ports O’ Call into a focal point of the new LA Waterfront,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino. “The Port’s selection of LA Waterfront Alliance is an exciting first step for a project that will bring extensive investment, new jobs and tourism to the 15th District.”

The Ports O’ Call development concept submitted by LA Waterfront Alliance includes a mix of visitor-focused commercial retail and restaurants, a boutique hotel and conference center, open space for events, as well as a 13th Street gateway connecting the San Pedro community and the waterfront.

The LA Waterfront Alliance concept had also suggested relocating the Port’s administration building, but this recommendation is not currently under consideration by Port staff.

The Port initially received eight proposals in response to its Request for Qualifications (RFQ) released in July 2012. Proposals were reviewed by a five-member evaluation team, using specific criteria outlined in the RFQ: the developer’s project vision for the site and how it would draw additional visitors to the waterfront; the developer’s qualifications and experience; the implementation, operation and sustainability strategy of the project; the financial capability of the respondent to carry out the project; and the ability to complete the project on schedule.

The Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) between the Port and LA Waterfront Alliance establishes a 240-day exclusive negotiating period, with a possible 120-day extension. Activities to be completed during this time include conducting a public outreach process, finalizing the development concept, and preparing financial and market analyses. The process will also determine if any further environmental assessment is required for the proposed project, though redevelopment of Ports O’ Call was already included as part of the San Pedro Waterfront Project Environmental Impact Report (EIR) approved by the Harbor Commission in 2009.

LA Waterfront Alliance is a collaboration of The Ratkovich Company and Jerico Development. The Ratkovich Company is a Los Angeles-based development company with 40 years of experience in commercial property development, construction, renovation and operations. Its flagship projects include, among others, the Hercules Campus at Playa Vista and The Alhambra office/retail/residential urban community complex in Alhambra.

Jerico Development is a San Pedro-based development firm that specializes in rehabilitating commercial buildings. Rehabilitated buildings completed by Jerico Development include the Brown Brothers, Gaffey and Grand Annex buildings in San Pedro, and the Loft building in downtown Long Beach. Jerico and affiliates also have developed high rise commercial office projects in Denver, as well as oilfield operations, master planned community entitlements and development in California, and mission critical facility operations and development in North Carolina.

Developed in the 1960s, Ports O’ Call Village is located just south of San Pedro’s historic downtown business and is within walking distance from the Port’s World Cruise Center, which sees hundreds of thousands of cruise travelers each year. Other attractions within walking distance include the USS IOWA Battleship museum and Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles, a large-scale permanent indoor craft marketplace fashioned from two WWII warehouses by the developer of the popular Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica.

The Ports O’ Call site includes 3,000 linear feet of rare water frontage and 375,000 square feet of retail and tourism-related entitled uses. Located at the south end of the Harbor (I-110) Freeway, the site is accessible to downtown Los Angeles and other key areas of Southern California.

The Port of Los Angeles is the leading seaport in North America in terms of shipping container volume and cargo value, the Port generates more than 830,000 regional jobs and $35 billion in annual wages and tax revenues.