Now that the Christmas trees have gone away for another year, the southwest corner of Culver Boulevard and Duquesne is ready to start buzzing with a new look.
The developer Joey Miller and his partner Judit Meda Fekete are hoping to start their mixed-use project, “as soon as possible,” Mr. Miller says.
You will pardon Mr. Miller, Culver City’s youngest developer, if he has more than 9900 Culver Blvd. on his mind this morning.
Bride and Groom Time
He is down to the last 143 days of bachelorhood.
If that is not sufficient pressure, in118 days he plans to inaugurate construction of a different sort, the three-story mixed-use project adjacent to the Downtown Post Office.
Hopefully, these two numbers will not become confused in his excited mind.
May is the red letter month on the calendar for the formerly disputed project at 9900 Culver.
Target Month
Two dates in May are personal and professional headliners.
By Thursday, May 1, says Mr. Miller, “I hope to have a shovel in the ground,” signifying the start of Downtown’s most unusual development in years.
Sunday, May 25, is even more of a red-letter day.
That is the afternoon he is scheduled to marry his high school sweetheart.
Whether you can call it a big wedding or more modest in scope depends, he says, on the definition of “big.”
“I have a friend,” says Mr. Miller, “who is planning a really big wedding. They are expecting 800 guests.”
The Miller wedding, however, will be no piker. Since both the bride’s family and the groom’s are local, the 25-year-old developer’s ceremony is being designed for 350 guests.
Shrinking and Compromising
But back to business.
For awhile, “9900 Culver Blvd.” was a battle cry for some residents. They thought the proposed building by Post Office was too tall and too dense.
Three months of turmoil last summer, between resistant neighbors and compromising developers, was followed by three quiescent months, resulting in a dieted-down project of 18 condos on the upper two floors and retail at ground level.
These developments have brought Mr. Miller to the ledge of construction in the first week of the new year.
“We got our final entitlements in November,” Mr. Miller said, “and on Dec. 24, we submitted our plan check. “Now we are working with engineers (from Building and Planning) and the Fire Dept. They are going over all of the details of our plan.
“When that is done, the next step is to talk to contractors about pricing.”
Names, Please
A favorite guessing game with mixed-use developments revolves around the identities of the ground-floor retailers.
“We have started to speak to national and local retailers,” Mr. Miller said. “But we have not signed anyone. Our preference is local retailers. We want to attract the kind who specialize in ‘soft’ businesses that will stimulate the streetscape and serve nearby residents.
“We are not talking banks or the kind of places where you need to make an appointment, but books, magazines, flowers, food.”
