Business Group Aims for a Smaller Fashion District
A group of business owners in the Los Angeles Fashion District Business Improvement District (BID) is attempting to form a new Fashion District BID that would be half the size of the current one and would be focused on apparel-industry tenants.
Business improvement districts provide security, sanitation and general management services funded by property owners in a specified area.
The small-is-better faction is represented by Los Angeles attorney Steven M. Barnhill of Barnhill & Vaynerov LLP, who said his clients are challenging the renewal of the current BID, which expires at the end of this year.
Barnhill said the proposed Garment District BID would encompass about 50 to 55 square blocks, a big reduction from the current 90-block area. Barnhill did not outline the proposed area but did say it would exclude many lofts, as well as the emerging discount fashion marts around San Pedro and Crocker streets. “The idea of a BID is to have like-minded property owners who can do their own self assessments,” Barnhill said.
Currently, Barnhill’s group is preparing to proceed with its plans but agreed to hash issues out with the current BID group in front of the city of Los Angeles’ Dispute Resolution Unit. Los Angeles Councilmember Jan Perry, who represents part of the Fashion District area, recently stepped in to initiate contact between the two parties and the resolution unit. A meeting is planned for the coming weeks. “It’s a tool and a good tool for conflicts,” Perry said.
Barnhill, who did not disclose the names of his clients, said their main bone of contention is that the Fashion District has become so large that it has made management more difficult. “They want to get back to the original core [of fashion-industry businesses],” he said. “The problem is that when you keep expanding, you’re going to have more conflicts and parties with different agendas. You have the [discount] fashion houses here and mom-and-pop stores there. Who are you going to promote?”
If the mediation does not work out, the new group will have to provide a petition to the Los Angeles City Council, showing cause for the new district and presenting a management plan. Eventually, business owners will vote on what they want.
“The board is concerned. Time is of the essence. The property owners have expressed their concerns, and the board has expressed willingness to listen,” said Kent Smith, executive director of the Fashion District BID. “Now we have to find ways to put the sides together. It’s a diverse group, and each has different issues important to them. Fundamentally, what we’ve been about is clean and safe, as 80 percent of the budget gets spent on that and the remainder is spent on what most are referring to as promotions. We try to brand the district. There’s a view out there that we need to do more, and we do, but the challenge is to do more with less [financing],” he said.
Smith said the priority is to get the BID renewed. It requires approval from 50 percent of the assessed property owners, and only 35 percent of the petitions are in.
Smith said there is a realistic chance that the BID would go dark on Jan. 1, 2009, meaning no security or rubbish clean-up services. “It would be a tragedy,” he said. —Robert McAllister
