A joint venture of the Ratkovich Company and Jerico Development can begin a long-anticipated $150 million project to remake the sprawling San Pedro Public Market.
The Port of Los Angeles’ five-member Harbor Commission voted unanimously to allow the first phase of construction to start. That work will include 100,000 square feet of restaurant space, 40,000 square feet of retail and 30,000 square feet of office space geared to local maritime businesses. Last March, Ratkovich and Jericho secured $30 million for the development project.
The first phase is expected to be completed in the fall of 2021.
Rapt Studio and Field Operations will work with the architecture firm Adamson Associates on the redesign of the promenade, located alongside the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest seaport in the country.
The entire work covers 29 acres, and is expected to comprise 300,000 square feet of commercial space, including a food hall and smaller shipping container restaurants. There will also be public green and pier space.
Long home to the once popular Ports O’ Call Village shopping center and restaurant, the redevelopment project has been under consideration for at least a decade. Built in the 1960s Ports O’ Call had grown increasingly threadbare and attendance had fallen off dramatically.
The Ratkovich-Jerico joint venture was awarded a 66-year lease on the site, which it intends to convert into a three-quarter-mile-long pedestrian oriented oceanfront promenade. Ratkovich and Jerico agreed not to hold the Harbor Commission liable if sea level rise damages any part of the property over the life of the lease.
The developers also plan to refurbish the existing docks, add floating facilities for sport fishing and whale watching, as well as harbor cruises and water taxis.
Some of Ratkovich’s adaptive reuse projects include renovating Downtown’s iconic Art Deco Oviatt Building, The Wiltern theater on Wilshire Boulevard and Chapman Market in Koreatown.
Jerico Development has overseen the adaptive reuse and commercial revival of several Long Beach and other harbor area properties.