Recent property sales have driven the going-rate for square footage in the immediate area well above the threshold when developer Bob Champion first considered the neighborhood.
Soaring Prices
Transactions have considerably raised the ante for anyone planning to redevelop, said a woman familiar with the details of the South Sepulveda plan.
Mainly for that reason, sources said, the scheme looks less and less appetizing financially to Mr. Champion. But it is not the only reason.
Just as other redevelopment projects have started out very large, only to be severely scaled down, South Sepulveda may be treading the same path.
A Huge Task
Tearing down 77 businesses, making deals with as many entrepreneurs, plus 19 property owners including several national chains would be an awesome-sized undertaking for any developer.
Mr. Champion has appeared to leave covert hints that folding the citys expanded concept and his more modest-sized plan into a single huge remake may not work for him.
The ambitious but highly unpopular notion of making the whole 1950s-style business district of South Sepulveda disappear overnight threw many of the entrepreneurs into instant and repeating shock.
Target of His Interest
Mr. Champion is said to have been only interested in redeveloping the southern end of the monster-sized 2=-block layout, the portion along Jefferson Boulevard, facing the 405 Freeway for wider exposure.
This cluster of about a dozen businesses houses large and small ones. Among them, First Federal Bank, Fed Ex/Kinkos, Big Lots, Winchells Donuts, a mattress store, kitchen store, golf shop, financial office, café, a religious articles store and, last of all, CompUSA, which is closing.
Vision and Reality
Mr. Champion, like many developers, has a streak of artistry in him.
The idea of designing and building an eyepopping shrine to modern architectural wizardry is appealing and tempting to visionary developers.
Mr. Champion among them.
He has built several handsome projects around Southern California.
Too Big?
Culver City, however, was not on a list for sprawling layouts, sources said.
Mr. Champion was coaxed, even hammered, they said, into embracing a much larger project.
City Halls conviction is that the 77-store bloc of the South Sepulveda corridor is badly and immediately in need of gentrification.
