The Los Angeles City Council on Dec. 17 unanimously approved
a 50-year lease to transform a 100-year-old pier on the LA waterfront into an urban
marine research and innovation center dubbed AltaSea.
The lease agreement – signed between the Port of Los Angeles
and the AltaSea project’s fiscal sponsor, the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
– involves about 35 acres of land and water at the port’s City Dock No. 1 site,
Berths 56-60 and Berths 70-71.
The AltaSea site will be developed through a public-private
partnership that includes the port, AltaSea and regional public and private
universities. Funding commitments for the project’s first phase currently total
$82 million, including $57 million in site-related capital investments by the port
and a $25 million gift by the Annenberg Foundation. Phase 1 is currently
estimated to cost $185 million with a 2018 completion goal.
For the first phase of the project – berths 56 and 57 – the port
has agreed to make improvements to the wharf and subsurfaces to ready the
property for development. AltaSea is responsible for upgrading the existing
historic warehouse structures, as well as other improvements and facility
operations.
“AltaSea is a game changer not only for the Los Angeles
waterfront but for the entire region,” LA Harbor Commissioner Anthony Pirozzi remarked,
saying that the project provides “a unique opportunity to diversify the job
base along the Los Angeles waterfront” via a world-class marine research
institute that that he predicted would become an “economic engine” for the
region.
The AltaSea campus is planned to feature circulating
seawater labs, offices, classrooms, lecture halls, support facilities, an
interpretive center, a facility for marine-related commercial ventures, and development
of a seawater wave tank for studying tsunamis and rogue waves.
The entire project cost is estimated at more than $500
million with completion over a 15- to 20-year timeframe.
