The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday will review ambitious plans for a major overhaul of the Expo Line-adjacent Bergamot Arts Center.
The 5-acre, city-owned complex is currently home to a group of five buildings that house a mix of art galleries and designer spaces, along with the nonprofit City Garage Theatre and the Bergamot Cafe.
Under a new proposal, detailed in a city staff report, the center could be redeveloped with 65,700 square feet of gallery and cultural space, a 21,100-square-foot museum, 9,000 square feet of additional art-related space, 30,000 square feet of creative office space, a seven-story hotel, and more.
The project would be developed by the Worthe Real Estate Group, which the city brought on as a development partner in 2014. On Tuesday, the council will decide lease the land to the Worthe Group for at least the next three years.
Santa Monica purchased land around what is now the 26th Street/Bergamot station back in 1989, using public transit funds. Since then, it has used rent money collected from leaseholders to subsidize the city’s Big Blue Bus system.
Right now, the city collects $552,553 per year from its current lessee, developer Wayne Blank. Not bad—but with a new arrangement, that number could go way up.
City staff estimates that, under the Worthe proposal, the amount collected from the ground lease would rise to $700,000. Additionally, a 120-room hotel would produce nearly $1.5 million in transit occupancy tax revenue, while money brought in from property taxes would also rise.
In spite of these economic incentives, Santa Monica Next notes that the project still faces resistance—particularly from gallery owners operating at the current complex who worry their businesses will be displaced.
An advisory committee brought on to review the project also recommended against including the hotel in the project, though that would be one of the largest sources of income for both the city and the project’s developer.
The City Council will discuss the plans at its 5:30 p.m. meeting on June 13.
- Santa Monica City Council to Consider Expo-Adjacent Bergamot Station Arts Center Plan Tuesday [Santa Monica Next]
- Pretty, Expo-Adjacent Office Space Rising on the Grave of the Bergamot Transit Village [Curbed LA]
- SaMo Approves Big Plans for the Bergamot Station Area [Curbed LA]
Comments
Santa Monica: the national headquarters of hypocrisy, NIMBYism, pandering, and selling out to developers.
Santa Monica is a hellhole. Just wait until they destroy our airport and replace that with more development, not to mention the high-rises that will then be possible on that side of town because FAA height restrictions will go away.
When you combine Santa Monica’s constipated, choked downtown with Mike Bonin’s idiotic destruction of Venice Boulevard, you get a West Side that is now unlivable as a residential area and useless as a commercial area. It’s theft from taxpayers on a massive scale.
By DGurn on 06.08.17 5:11pm
"unlivable as a residential area and useless as a commercial area" – Must be why lease rates for both are at record levels.
By I Like Buildings on 06.09.17 3:04pm
A lot of potential waisted tax dollars. The city would never allow this if this was own by private developers or make it not feasible (fees and low income housing requirement) to build any thing. SM is a curator of Art world and king of non profit operation now. They should focus on real mandate of the people not a pet project like this.
By High Rent on 06.08.17 7:12pm
Not convinced that Santa Monica, with the most highly paid civil servants in a city our size, would properly manage the additional 200-300K per year in revenue. It would just be an additional headcount in the city overseeing Santa Monica happiness trends. And for what? The only remaining authentic Santa Monica art district turned into a sterile high rent traffic hub. Time to speak up.
By Jeff One on 06.08.17 7:36pm
Good bye Santa Monica hello gridlock. Does anyone have common sense, traffic control is already a pathetic failure.
By cosmicsight8 on 06.08.17 10:58pm
The project is adjacent to the Expo Line. Revenue from the project will fund Santa Monica public transit.
If you are legitimately worried about traffic, get out of your car and into public transit. Urban areas where people walk and take public transit are the best places to live.
Fortunately, unlike you, Santa Monica is not stuck in the 1950s.
By Matthew J58 on 06.09.17 8:40am
Santa Monica should really try to build less commercial space and more housing on that side of the 10… seems very lopsided.
By corner soul on 06.09.17 8:41pm