Key Downtown Project Could Begin in 2002

LOS ANGELES-Officials at CIM Group, the locally-based investment and development firm that earlier this month acquired a key parcel in Downtown for about $40 million, say they could begin construction of a giant mixed-use project on the site with the coming year.

The 7.2-acre property takes up the better part of three blocks bounded by Grand Avenue, Figueroa Street and 8th and 9th streets. It includes the former headquarters of Southern California Gas Co.

CIM Group co-founder Shaul Kuba says the old Gas Company complex, in the 800 block of Flower Street, will be converted into residential lofts. Though plans for the rest of the newly acquired parcel haven’t been finalized, Kuba says they will include construction of the Central Business District’s first supermarket — a business that Downtown boosters have long said is needed to make the area a true live-work, 24-hour community.