bmwracer wrote:

Excellent. Hopefully they won't try to emulate Roppongi Hills cache of high-tone stores... They tried something similar in the Onizuka Plaza and that crashed and burned after a couple of years.

Haha...yeah I doubt it would be all super luxe, high end retail...I doubt it would survive...at least it's something to look forward to....if they put in a Mitsuwa there after they get booted from their current location that would be even better!

Tu_triky wrote:

Haha...yeah I doubt it would be all super luxe, high end retail...I doubt it would survive...at least it's something to look forward to....if they put in a Mitsuwa there after they booted from their current location that would be even better!

That would be nice... The Yaohan/Mitsuwa at the other location was off the beaten path anyways...

bmwracer wrote:

That would be nice... The Yaohan/Mitsuwa at the other location was off the beaten path anyways...

Yup, this new setup would make a lot more sense. Right next to JANM and real close to Little Tokyo Village. Let's hope it all works out.

bmwracer wrote:

That would be nice... The Yaohan/Mitsuwa at the other location was off the beaten path anyways...

No question. In fact because of its precise location it wasn't located within the geographical area covered by the cultural preservation mandate that includes the Little Tokyo area "proper."

gaijinmark wrote:

Yup, this new setup would make a lot more sense. Right next to JANM and real close to Little Tokyo Village. Let's hope it all works out.

Indeed. Moreover, the extension to the Metro Gold Line (when finished) will drop off commuters right on that very location, First and Alameda...so I would imagine it would bring in many more visitors to the area, further supporting economic activity in the area.

Tu_triky wrote:

Indeed. Moreover, the extension to the Metro Gold Line (when finished) will drop off commuters right on that very location, First and Alameda...so I would imagine it would bring in many more visitors to the area, further supporting economic activity in the area.

Yup, dropping people right at the doorstep would definitely be a plus.

bmwracer wrote:

Yup, dropping people right at the doorstep would definitely be a plus.

Serious...

Here's another article I found re: the proposed Nikkei Center.

============================


City Council Votes 10-0 for Nikkei Center
By GWEN MURANAKA
Friday, Aug. 29, 2008

Little Tokyo-led group wins rights to develop 4.5 acre Mangrove Estates.

Nikkei Center received official ap­proval on Friday, Aug. 15 with the Los Angeles City Council voting 10-0 to select the team of Kaji and Associates, Little To­kyo Service Center and Urban Partners to develop the 4.5 acre site at First and Alameda streets.

“Now it’s final. Little Tokyo has its big project and now it’s time for us to get busy,” said Jonathan Kaji, following the City Council meeting.

The motion passed without discus­sion by the City Council in the final session before its two-week summer recess. Nikkei Center is to be built on the site known as Mangrove Estates, currently a city parking lot and one of the last open parcels in Little Tokyo. It consists of 390 units of mixed-income rental housing (40 for seniors, 70 for low income households), 180,000 square feet of office space, 80,000 square feet of retail space and 1,286 parking spaces. The office space is tentatively planned as the headquarters for L.A. Care Health Plan, a health maintenance organization created to provide public health benefits to under-served communities.

Nikkei Center LLC will purchase the property from the city for $44 million, ac­cording to the final report issued July 30 by the Chief Legislative Analyst’s (CLA) of­fice. The Little Tokyo-led group has until March 1, 2009, with two optional 90-day extensions, to finalize the agreement.

“Now we’ll have to get into the spe­cifics of the project with the city. Nego­tiating the actual purchase of the land, getting approval for our plans — all before we can start construction,” said Kaji. “So the process will take at least another year to year and a half.”

If Nikkei Center fails to reach an agreement with the city, the city can turn to the second and third highest scoring developers: First and Alameda Partners, LLC and Tokyo ArtPark Crossing, LLC. Nikkei Center was picked from three fi­nalists who were selected out of five bids received by the CLA following a request for proposals issued in August 2007. The competing finalists had the opportunity to file an appeal following the notifica­tion of the CLA’s selection on June 24; however no appeals were filed.

Kaji said that the group would be celebrating the decision. The successful bid followed a number of high-profile purchases in Little Tokyo by outside in­vestors, including Japanese Village Plaza, Little Tokyo Shopping Center and the former New Otani Hotel and Gardens.

Nikkei Center will also be at a criti­cal commercial juncture within the city. The future site of a Gold Line light rail station, Metro is also looking at the intersection as the site of a proposed regional connector, which would link the Gold, Blue and Expo lines.

“It’s a huge win for Little Tokyo, for the Japanese American community and think the impact of a $300 million proj­ect on businesses and professionals in the JA community will have enormous benefits,” said Kaji. “I was always hope­ful that we would succeed in this effort, but there were many points along this lengthy process where we could have dropped out for any number of reasons. I think that goes to the gaman spirit of our local team.”

Jonathan’s father Bruce Kaji, founder of the Japanese American National Museum and a longtime advocate of JA investment in Little Tokyo, also attended the council meeting.

“Finally a project that Japanese Americans can point to where they have a direct relationship to bringing forth a major, major attraction to Little Tokyo,” Bruce said. “It also will give the JA com­munity a chance to invest in bringing this about and by doing so it will benefit all the nonprofits in the area.”

^ Yay!

bmwracer wrote:

^ Yay!

Yeah at least there is a developer in play that actually has the credibility and the wherewithal to seek out and solicit investment/tenants to actual preserve the cultural identity of the area...as the articles I posted above mentioned, this is the last piece of land that can be developed in Little Tokyo. Unless, they were to tear down some existing structures, this is the last parcel that can be developed into something new without requiring demolition of existing commerical subdivisions.

I'll be interested to hear who they get to lease the retail space once the proposal nears the final stages of negotiation.

The following money has been appropriated in the year-end spending bill passed by Congress:

- $4,000,000 to construct the Go For Broke National Education Center and provide for the historical preservation of artifacts related to the Asian American veterans who fought in the 442nd Regiment during WWII. It will complete development around the Go For Broke Monument in Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles.

As you many of you may know the 442nd Regimental Combat Team is single most decorated unit in the history of the United States military.

You figure these guys deserve a memorial of some kind.

Tu_triky wrote:

The following money has been appropriated in the year-end spending bill passed by Congress: - $4,000,000 to construct the Go For Broke National Education Center and provide for the historical preservation of artifacts related to the Asian American veterans who fought in the 442nd Regiment during WWII. It will complete development around the Go For Broke Monument in Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles. As you many of you may know the 442nd Regimental Combat Team is single most decorated unit in the history of the United States military. You figure these guys deserve a memorial of some kind.

They do.

But why just in Little Tokyo? There should be one where all the other WWII vets are in Arlington National Cemetery...

bmwracer wrote:

They do. But why just in Little Tokyo? There should be one where all the other WWII vets are in Arlington National Cemetery...

I thought about that as well....and I don't know that there won't be a parallel memorial somewhere in the D.C. area. Perhaps further investigation is warranted.

Maybe in Little Tokyo b/c of the presence of the Japanese American Nat'l Musuem...I believe it's the only one of its kind in the nation. Just speculating...

They already have a memorial. It's on the other side of MOCA. Maybe this money is for maintenance and upgrades. It's kind of neat. I've gone down there a couple times and they usually have a couple docents there. Usually it's some guys that fought in that division. They're fun to talk to, a lot of amazing stories.

gaijinmark wrote:

They already have a memorial. It's on the other side of MOCA. Maybe this money is for maintenance and upgrades. It's kind of neat. I've gone down there a couple times and they usually have a couple docents there. Usually it's some guys that fought in that division. They're fun to talk to, a lot of amazing stories.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Sounds like a unique opportunity to hear from living veterans from a generation slowly slipping into history.

Here's a link to the monument:http://www.goforbroke.org/about_us/about_us_monument_design.asp

gaijinmark wrote:

Here's a link to the monument:http://www.goforbroke.org/about_us/about_us_monument_design.asp

I checked out the website. Interesting info.

gaijinmark wrote:

They already have a memorial. It's on the other side of MOCA. Maybe this money is for maintenance and upgrades. It's kind of neat. I've gone down there a couple times and they usually have a couple docents there. Usually it's some guys that fought in that division. They're fun to talk to, a lot of amazing stories.

I've been to the monument several times. I have two uncles whose names are engraved there. The one who's still alive visited it for the first time several years ago; it brought back a lot of memories for him as he read the names of the men in his company, many of whom have passed on.

Historical trivia: Before the 442nd was formed, there was the 100th Battalion, a unit from Hawaii made up of nisei that actually was the first unit of its kind to serve in the European theater during WWII. Eventually the 100th merged with the 442nd. Both my uncles were originally in the 100th Battalion, also referred to by its members as the "one puka puka" ("puka" is Hawaiian for hole).

Little Tokyo looks to get back its vibes with new development
Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

By JACOB ADELMAN
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) The last time Little Tokyo tried getting back to its Japanese roots, it was in the early 1980s with the Japanese Village Plaza, a warren of sweets shops, tea stands and trinket stores under sloping glazed-tile roofs.

Now, on the eve of the area's most ambitious development project in decades, the historically Japanese enclave in Los Angeles has something different in mind: trendy boutiques and stylish apartments enclosed in sleek mid-rise towers.

As Little Tokyo's ethnic vibes change with newcomers filling new housing, neighborhood leaders are making a bid to lure hip young Japanese-Americans back to the neighborhood with the $300 million Nikkei Center, a sprawling complex of apartments, shops and public gardens being built on the area's last major undeveloped parcel.

Coming after the sale of the Japanese Village Plaza and a string of other iconic Little Tokyo properties to buyers from outside the community, neighborhood leaders who want the community to maintain a strong Japanese character say the Nikkei Center represents a last hope.

"It's our attempt to determine the community's destiny, which up until now has been determined by well-meaning developers from outside the community," said Jonathan Kaji, whose firm Kaji & Associates is codeveloping the property.

The City Council voted to sell the 1.8-hectare parcel of city-owned land to developers for $44 million in mid-August. Jerde Partnership, which designed parts of Tokyo's chic Roppongi Hills high rise, as well the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, has been tapped as the project's architect.

Planners say groundbreaking is at least a year and a half away, so details on the complex's design that will include a mix of apartments, offices and shops are still sketchy. But they say it will avoid the samurai-movie-set hyperbole of past development projects.

"We would like it to have a Japanese touch or flavor, but not this pagoda sort of thing: this sort of ostentatious caricature of Japanese culture," said Bill Watanabe, president of the Little Tokyo Services Center, a social services agency and nonprofit developer teaming up with Kaji on the project.

The team plans to attract tenants by advertising the development in Japan, as well as in Japanese-language media in the U.S. and Latin America with large ethnic Japanese populations, like Peru and Brazil.

Planners hope the Nikkei Center's shopping, dining and night life offerings — which emulate those of Japan's big Tokyo — will encourage Japanese-Americans who feel a connection with modern Japan to take up residence in the complex's apartments.

Businesspeople from Japan and overseas Japanese communities who need a part-time home in L.A. are also being targeted as possible tenants.

It's all an attempt to arrest a process that many ethnic communities across the United States have undergone, as assimilated generations leave dense ethnic enclaves for mainstream neighborhoods.

New York's Little Italy, once a sprawling Italian district, is now little more than a block-long strip of pasta restaurants; Los Angeles' Historic Filipinotown district is now primarily Hispanic.

California's other major Japanese enclaves — the Japantowns of San Francisco and San Jose — have also lost much of their Japanese populations.

Covering 15 square blocks, Los Angeles' Little Tokyo remains the nation's largest ethnic Japanese district.

Its first Japanese inhabitants settled here around 100 years ago, when neighborhood covenants and other opposition kept them from living in more established areas. At the time, the gritty neighborhood on the fringe of downtown was full of rooming houses.

By the start of World War II, Little Tokyo had 8,000 residents of Japanese decent. The sprawling enclave of Buddhist temples, Japanese-led churches and markets selling tofu, miso paste and other traditional foods also drew customers from the region's other, smaller Japanese neighborhoods.

But after the war, many former Little Tokyo residents did not return to the neighborhood from the internment camps where they were held, moving instead to newly built suburbs that had no history of excluding nonwhite residents.

Its area also shrank as the city's police headquarters and other civic buildings were constructed within its borders.

Still, its temples, Japanese churches and ethnic grocery stores kept it at the heart of the region's Japanese-American society until the 1980s, when newly assimilated generations found less use for what it had to offer.

The neighborhood was also hurt by the early 1990s collapse of the Japanese economy, when investors demolished structures to make way for new buildings that were planned but never built.

In 2005, about two-thirds of the neighborhood's 875 households — most of them elderly residents in senior housing developments — were of Japanese descent, according to the Little Tokyo Services Center.

By June 2008, the number of homes in the area had grown to 1,449, but the portion of Japanese occupants had declined to just over half.

Some fear the newly diverse mix of residents could spell the end of the neighborhood's Japanese cultural character, as retailers focus on a more mainstream clientele.

Popped into Kinokuniya today, they're starting to put calendars out. This seems to get earlier every year.