Riordan Attends Wall-Raising Ceremony for Industrial Park

Declaring that the project will mean “quality jobs for many Angelenos,” Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan participated in a wall-raising ceremony Tuesday at an industrial park under construction downtown.

The park is the brainchild of developer Robert Lowe, who also heads one of the mayor’s favorite projects, the New Los Angeles Marketing Partnership, a public-private partnership that advertises worldwide to promote the Los Angeles region.

Riordan and Lowe tugged ceremonially on ropes attached to a huge piece of concrete that was then hoisted into place by a crane. The concrete was part of the wall of the first of 32 planned warehouses to be built on the 20-acre site at Alameda and 7th streets.

The Alameda Trade Center is aimed at import-export businesses and is designed to take advantage of the proximity to the coming Alameda Corridor--a rail and truck project designed to speed the transfer of goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles.