In July 2020, a Bureau of Engineering memo recommended that the City of Los Angeles “move forward on the Warner Grand Theatre Rehabilitation Project with a Total Project Cost of $9,873,000,” with construction to commence in January 2022 and finish by the following December.
Four years later, the project is slated to cost twice as much and take twice as long. And eight months after closing, the City has yet to contract anyone to do the work. But nobody in the Warner Grand’s orbit seems concerned.
“The project is going well,” says Liz Schindler Johnson, executive director of the Grand Vision Foundation, the nonprofit arts organization that manages the theater. “Cost increases and delays are to be expected with any complex historic renovation like this. This is not a cookie-cutter project. I’m grateful that the City has found additional funds and trust that they will see this project through within a reasonable time frame.” (Johnson did not respond to a question asking what sort of timeframe she considers reasonable.)
Earlier this year, though, Johnson expressed some concern. In February 2024 she sent a draft of a planned newsletter update on the renovation to the Bureau of Engineering’s Marcus Yee, the project manager. Her draft included a reference to “the Warner Grand Theatre’s upcoming $15 million renovation” — a figure $1 million higher than the one the City bandied about in 2023 (and still lists on the public Project Information Report). After Yee amended the figure to $16 million, Johnson replied that perhaps she should “tak[e] out the $16 million figure because we are not sure of that and it keeps growing.”
Johnson’s concerns were valid. Less than two months after this exchange, the City of Los Angeles put the project out to bid at $16.61 million. But that figure was out of step with reality, as the City received only two bids, the lowest of which was just shy of $18 million.
In the four months since then, the project cost has ballooned to $22.2 million. However, through a combination of reauthorizing formerly approved funds and securing an additional $4.2 million in Mayor Karen Bass’s proposed FY2024–25 budget, it appears a shortfall will be avoided for Phase 1 (i.e., the project currently on the table of what is hoped will ultimately be a three-phase renovation).
“I remain optimistic regarding the cost of the project,” says Councilmember Tim McOsker, whose District 15 includes the Warner Grand, “because even with rising materials and labor costs, we’ve been able to allocate more funding for this important renovation.”
The scope of work for Phase 1 includes:
- Installation of a new elevator “to provide ADA access to the Second Floor and basement from the Main Floor Lobby”
- Expanding/upgrading current restrooms and adding gender-neutral and ADA restrooms to meet current code requirements
- Restoring lobby flooring and ceiling
- “Converting two existing sections of commercial space near the Southwest side of the building […] into a safe and secure ticketing and info booth,” which “will also provide additional staff office and storage space”
- Restoring “front facing shapes and historic awnings”
- Converting the commercial space exterior storage space on the southeast side “into a multi-use space that can accommodate a production/ stage manager office, and interior storage space for the off-stage equipment”
- “Transform the space historically designated as the venue apartment (currently office space) into a small reception lounge [that] will retain the historic fabric, and closet restroom”
- “General historical rehabilitation of the finishes and fixtures, and replacement of the concession stands”
- “General historical rehabilitation of the finishes and fixtures” in the second-floor lobbies “installation of new electrical infrastructure to accommodate events”
- “Replacement of the HVAC system and any gas-powered devices”
But when construction will commence remains an open question. Although in a May 30 memo the Bureau of Engineering’s Architectural Division recommended approval of a bid from 2H Construction (the lowest of the two submitted), the City has yet to ink a contract.
“The contract award is still being worked on and has not gone before the Board of Public Works yet,” Nemick told Random Lengths News last month. “When the Board approves the contract, at that time the name of the contractor will be made public. We expect this to happen late summer.”
Needless to say, that delay invalidates the previous project start date of August 1 — which itself was a revision of the July 1 start date given when the Warner Grand closed for renovations on January 1. The start date listed on the Project Information Report was recently updated to October 2.
The projected duration of the renovation has also been pushed back. Although last year City communications typically pegged the project duration as “18 to 24 months,” when questioned for this article last month Nemick put the project duration at “roughly 500 calendar days (approx. 17 months total),” which was consistent with the Bureau of Engineering’s May 30 memo. However, in October 2023 Yee informed Johnson that the construction time period was estimated at two years. Although Nemick did not respond to Random Lengths News’s query as to how/why the original construction estimate was shortened or why the one she was giving differed so sharply from the project manager’s, within the last two weeks the Project Information Report was updated to reflect Yee’s estimate — meaning that even without further delays, the Warner Grand will not reopen until October 2026. But as Nemick said in July, “[P]lease note that some projects have been known to run into unknown/unforeseen conditions which can extend the construction period.”
Nonetheless, McOsker, who last year expressed “great confidence in my ability to stay on this project — make sure it closes at the right time, that we do the work expediently, and that we get the thing open as quickly as possible,” is not sounding the alarm.
“I’m always concerned with how bureaucratic and slow the city can be on public improvement projects,” he says. “[…] My staff and I have responded to some unanticipated delays and have worked hard to resolve each one of them as quickly as possible. […] Regarding the reopening, my team and I will continue to stay on top of this, continuing our weekly coordination meetings and problem solving [sic]. I am confident that we can reopen the space and welcome residents and visitors back to the beautiful Warner Grand as soon as feasible.”
One person not especially eager for construction to begin is Dave Lynch, owner of Sacred Grounds Coffee Cafe, a San Pedro cultural anchor since 1995 which will be displaced by the renovation. Frustrated by the lack of definitive information he’s received regarding the start date (“It’s changed so many times”), Lynch says that when construction does finally begin, San Pedro will lose Sacred Grounds forever, at least in its current spot.
“I’m not going to leave and then come back a year-and-a-half [or] two years from now,” Lynch says. “I’m not gonna do that. If we close, we close.” As to the possibility of reopening Sacred Grounds at a different location, he says, “I don’t know. It’s hard to plan ahead when I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
One might be inclined to say the same thing about the Warner Grand itself.