City Approves Loans for Hollywood Boulevard Makeover

The latest effort to spruce up one of the most famous streets in the world just got a huge influx of cash.

On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $1.75 million loan program designed to boost efforts to give Hollywood Boulevard a much-needed makeover.

The effort, called the Hollywood Business Retention and Attraction Commercial Property Improvement Program, is a series of conditional loans offered to property owners along the famed boulevard’s business district, which stretches from La Brea to the 101 freeway.

“The program targets small businesses and property owners with loans they can use to fix up their storefronts, helping improve the attractiveness of the entire neighborhood,” said Chris Essel, CEO of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the group running the program. “Our Hollywood project area has become home to major CRA/LA-backed initiatives such as the W Hotel and the Hollywood & Highland complex. This program will help the area’s smaller, older operations thrive by creating more inviting facilities to draw in visitors.”

The loans, which do not require cash repayment, range in value up to $200,000 and are deemed repaid after a 10-year period if the owners maintain the property and meet other contract parameters. A similar program was implemented recently in Canoga Park and was successful in the completion of more than 100 facade improvements.

The CRA/LA program will work with the Hollywood Entertainment District and the Hollywood Facelift program it launched earlier this year, according to Neelura Bell, the CRA/LA project manager overseeing the program. 

“CRA/LA has not marketed to the broader community yet, but the Hollywood Entertainment District BID is excited about the program as a resource to complement their Facelift efforts,” Bell told Patch. “We will begin doing a series of outreach in July, including mailing to property owners and business, door-to-door marketing, and CRA/LA will be joining efforts at an event with Hollywood Entertainment District BID at the end of July to announce the availability of the program.”

Whether or not Hollywood businesses will be receptive to the loan program remains to be seen. , the Hollywood Facelift initiative asks business owners to commit to the program by signing a “contract with Hollywood” followed by a seminar that gives the owners tools and incentives to clean up their buildings.

Although the original Facelift program was slated to update the boulevard by the 2012 Academy Awards, Hollywood visitors and residents may have to wait until the 2013 awards show instead, according to Bell.  “We will start accepting applications in August, start with plans and design work in October, and maybe mid-2012 construction on projects can start.”