Michael Wylie: Filling Empty Spaces

Mike Wylie has been a driving force behind some of the most interesting cultural developments unfolding in Downtown Long Beach, including the Zombie Walk, a long string of music and art events at the MADhaus, the creation of a senior learning center and the support of multiple gallery spaces.

Officially, Wylie is the Vice President of Park Bixby Tower, Inc., which operates the Park Pacific Tower low-income senior housing facility on the northeast corner of Pacific Ave. and 7th St. Looking to expand the scope of the facilities, PBTI purchased properties on the south side of 7th and directly east, on Pine Avenue. Because of certain challenges still being addressed, these properties weren’t able to be developed as he’d hoped. But instead of leaving them empty, he’s turned them into powerful cultural engines for the community. This is no surprise, though, because he comes from a long tradition of community service.

How did the Tower get started?

My great-uncle, Dr. Rev. Lee Thomas, founded our charity in the 1960s. He was a minister and his faith lead him in his endeavors. Park Pacific Tower was one of them. He used to come down to Long Beach on his days off and noticed a lot of older adults who did not have quality affordable housing, so he decided to do something about.

In partnership with HUD and the City of Long Beach, he built the Park Pacific Tower. It is home to over 220 low-income older adults.

My father is currently the CEO of our charity. He is a great mentor and boss. He took over the position after my great-uncle passed in the late 90’s. Under his leadership, the organization has grown significantly. He started a relationship with CSULB that is an integral part of our services and mission. In partnership with CSULB, we offer a number of programs to the members of Park Pacific Tower.

How were the programs developed?

They were all developed from a needs-analysis report done by Dr. Gail Farmer. She is Assistant Dean of the Department of Health and Human Service at CSULB. Dr. Farmer interviewed just about every person in the building, collecting data about cultural, educational and health concerns. It was remarkable work and a valuable tool for us in building a happier, healthier community where our tenants can age in place.

We have been implementing Dr. Farmer’s conclusions in the building. She identified that we had 17 languages in the building, making it a multicultural, multi-language community. She also identified that many of the tenants suffered periods of depression.

How have these issues been addressed?

Socialization programs are very important in addressing health and wellness issues, including depression and isolation. One of the early challenges for us was how to create a community with such a diverse group of people? Socialization in important to break the feelings of isolation, and improve their happiness and well being.

The family worked hard to interview folks from around the country with similar properties. It came down to the same basic things we do to build community and connections in cities: Have a party with food, music and entertainment. That may seem a little simple, but it is a good first step, and it works.

For their physical needs, we built a gym that is managed by CSULB graduate students and we stimulate the minds of our residents with the OLLI program in the Bungalow Building.

What is the OLLI program?

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is a university for older adults and a national program administered by the CSULB School of Health and Human Services in conjunction with the Osher Foundation. They have about 1,300 members in Long Beach. People volunteer to teach classes, and the members decide what they want to study. No tests. Just the stimulation of the mind that helps with retaining cognitive function.

Logan Crow, the cultural entrepreneur responsible for Long Beach Cinematheque, Mondo Celluloid and the Zombie Walk, teaches the history of movies. Denis McCourt, founder and Artistic Director of Public Theatre of Southern California, is starting a theater program through OLLI.

OLLI is a great program that helps our residents keep sharp, learn a bit, and make friends. It is open to people in the community, and our residence get to attend class for free in exchange for OLLI having free space in the Bungalow Building, located on the 700 block of Pine Ave.

What other cultural activities do your residents enjoy?

We underwrite other events inside and outside the building. We provide tickets and transportation to International City Theatre and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra performances, for whale watching, and fund programs at the Long Beach Museum of Art. We also offer many monthly programs in the Tower, including talent shows, a coffee hour, and movies. We also have monthly music events with CSULB students, and other performers.

As a kid, when did you began to feel a connection to the service work your family did?

It was a few years after my birth, I think. [laughs] I was shown by example. My parents were involved in so many things. My first memory of the Tower was at a very early age. My father and my great uncle use to sit around and talk business. My uncle started schools in America and Africa, and helped start the Fred Jordan Homeless Mission with my grandfather and Fred Jordan.

My mom was very involved in the arts. She was one of the first artist in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia and started an arts-based school with the Annenberg Foundation in Houston, Texas.

My father worked in politics and has always been very involved. They are still very active in many community affairs, so the connection to building better communities is in my blood.

As a child, you had difficulty in school, and were eventually diagnosed with dyslexia. What was that like?

I still feel stressed out when thinking about the embarrassment I felt struggling to read out loud in front of my peers. It was bizarre to know things, but not to be ‘normal.’ I was pretty strong in most other disciplines, though.

I use to stay awake at night worrying about my future. It was very stressful and scary wondering if I could make it in this world, being challenged with regards to reading. I was so blessed to have my parents who loved me and supported me. God only knows what would have happened to me with out them.

In 8th grade, we had a parent/teacher conference and the teacher told my father that I would be lucky to go to a vocational school. He got very upset and, for a levelheaded guy, that was amazing. It gave me confidence, knowing that my father was passionate about his belief in me. He would tell me about all the successful people in this world who had dyslexia, like Einstein. The list is long.

In 9th grade my mom sent me to a speed reading class and in a matter of 9 weeks, I went from a 4th grade level to 9th grade. When I slept at night I felt my brain changing. As a result, I believe miracles can happen.

Other then not being able to spell that well, the rest is history. I went on to graduate from one the best universities in the country and work with some amazing, super smart people.

Do those experiences influence you now?

I feel that the struggle was a blessing. It forced my to think for myself and become a stronger person. The struggle in knowing I was capable of reading, but could not, forced me to look at the world in a different way, to organize things differently, to work harder then the next guy, to never give up, and to believe in myself. It also gave me a great deal of empathy for those who do not fit in.

Outside of your family’s business, what other ambitions did you have?

As a kid, I was into sports like soccer, track, and wrestling. I was also on the debate team in high school. It was cool, but I was far from the greatest. [laughs]

My high school football team was one of the best programs in the country. I started three years straight, and earned a scholarship to Rice University that, at the time, was in the Southwest conference. I got recruited by Berry Switzer, who had just won the National Championship at Oklahoma.

I was an All Texas State football player. As one of the best players in the state of Texas, I had many opportunities to go many places, but wanted to get an education. Rice has one of the highest and most consistent graduation rates of any athletic program in the country. The school best reflected my values.

After I graduated I played football in Europe for a few years. I got to travel extensively throughout Europe, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I still have friends in Europe. It gave me a more worldly understanding of life, and of European beer. [laughs]

Why did you come back to the United States?

I wanted to get, as my dad would say, a real job. [laughs] So, soon after my return, I started working for Deloitte, doing international tax and mergers and acquisitions. That is when I started to get turned on to finance. It was so interesting trying to marry numbers to actions.

I then got hired by a one of our clients, a small boutique investment banking firm out of New York. For a handful of years in the late 90s and early 2000s I split time between L.A. and New York City. It was very exciting, and I remember working many hours on very interesting transactions, like underwriting a deal to buy the New York Jets. Our client lost, but it was very cool to learn how a pro team works.

We financed movie deals, concert venues and tours as well, and hotels, hospitals, and jumbo jets. Every deal was like being in school. I was usually the only guy in the room without an Ivy League MBA.

Why did you give up this exciting work to join your family’s company?

In ’05 or ’06, before the meltdown, I was with a friend and client in Antigua on a 130 foot single-mast sailboat, having just flown down on a private jet, when Paul Allen, Bill Gates’ partner in Microsoft, pulled up next to us on his 275 foot boat. The guy I was with said ‘Wow!! How do people afford things like that?’ [laughs] ‘Really,’ I wondered, ‘will money satisfy me?’ The guy [I was with] was worth billions at the time, too.

It opened a Pandora’s box of questions about life and what I am here to do. Around the same time, one of our independent board members was pushing for a business succession plan for Park Pacific Tower. My father was getting older, and I had been moonlighting for our charity for a handful of years. He asked me if I wanted to join the company full time.

I jumped at the opportunity to work with my family and dedicate myself to the vision that my Great Uncle had set out to do: To improve the lives of older adults and benefit the community at the same time, while growing the financial foundation of our charity and expanding its mission and services.

Why did PBTI purchase the properties to the south, including the old Model T repair garage now known as the MADHAUS?

We wanted more parking for the Tower and the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency [RDA] owned the parking lot across the street. They said, ‘Go buy the properties around the parking lot and we will sell you the parking lot.’ Needless to say, after spending millions, we still do not own the parking lot. This adventure in trusting the RDA has cost our foundation over $10 million in opportunity costs. We could have done a lot of good with that but, oh well, sometimes things do not work out.

What about the properties on Pine, north of 7th?

On the north side of the tower we were going to build more housing for older adults. However, due to several factors, like the economy and being unable to come to decent terms regarding the purchase of the old Cha Cha Cha’s on the corner of 8th and Pacific we are now struggling to convert these places into something more interesting.

You’ve said that Music, Art, and Digital Media are the main focus of MADHaus. How is that going to work in practical terms?

We hope to make it the home of the Cultural Alliance of Long Beach. We have been hosting various events in the space. The first group was Alive Theater just over a year ago, however due to the city’s prohibition era laws regarding entertainment, they could only do a show every 10 days.

Since then, we have had community meetings, movies, concerts, art, and fashion shows in the space. We have to pull permits each time we have an event in the space. We are currently waiting for the city to come up with new rules regarding entertainment before we try to get what is called a retail entertainment permit.

The hope with the MADhaus is to turn it into a cultural and performing arts center with a more edgy slant. We are working on obtaining grants to improve the city’s dilapidated alleys. We have a master plan for the block that is very cool.

We want to create a sense of place on the block, with new landscaping, a new park, and a gastropub on Pine next to the dolphin park. This will go great with the new development at the Millworks.

With the demise of the RDA and the city’s fiscal crisis in full flower, do you think the chances of purchasing the parking lot have improved?

[laughs] God only knows. Governor Brown has created a major issue for the state and the city to resolve. It is a legal nightmare! [They are a] bunch of knuckleheads if you ask me. RDA funds paid for the property so, in my opinion, the city should get to keep it, but who knows. This is just one of many issues facing the State of California that helps it to maintain its position as the worst state in the country to do business in, and philanthropy is a business to me.

It would be nice if, somehow, they could give us the parking lot in return for us providing a new alley on the block and the opening of a cultural performing arts center. The parking lot does not have much of a value and looks terrible with its rusty fences and lack of landscaping. It is funny that the RDA was suppose to help fight blight but, here, it has perpetuated and supported it.

You’ve been part of a growing movement to activate what has come to be known as North Pine by some, and Historic Old Pine Avenue [HOPA] by others. What’s happening on that front?

We are activating the street level of the Bungalow building in the hopes of making the area a bit livelier,. Along with the Downtown Long Beach Associates [DLBA], which provides funds for galleries on the 500, 600, and 700 blocks of Pine Avenue, together we have activated almost 16,000 square feet of previously empty retail space.

Our company has built a screening room for OLLI and for other events that Logan Crow produces. Logan has free office space in there as well.

We have been working with the neighborhood, HOPA, and the Downtown Residential Council [DRC] in activating Pine Avenue. You just have to look at what Blair Cohn has done in Bixby Knolls to get an idea of what needs to be done on Pine. It will take time, but he has proven that regular and consistence street events help build cities.

That is one reason I have given Logan Crow free office space in the Bungalow Building, and a $50k grant to do the Zombie Walk last year. It was the single most successful event Pine, the Village and Waterfront has had in terms of gross sales for business. That’s the point of these events. They should be about making businesses money, and filling empty spaces.

We need to move stuff up Pine so people can see what it is capable of doing. It is about showing people. That is one reason I support the HOPA Third Friday Art and Music Twilight Walk. It is just a big open house.

It would be nice if business districts had more control of the streets. We could improve things, but it is so expensive and time consuming to close streets for community events. The current policies regarding events retards growth and economic activity. Heck! Huntington Beach closes its Main Street once a week!

The DLBA funds events on the waterfront, in the village, and on lower Pine. These are great but, if we are going to improve North Pine or Long Beach Boulevard, we need to have regular smaller events like the HOPA art walk.

We decided to do this, in part, because we have traditionally not gotten much love from the DLBA. So, like good Americans, we just rolled up our sleeves and went to work. It is our second year and things are going well. It is just going to get better over time.

The DLBA has started to come around with the funding of the gallery spaces. It would be nice if we could get some kind of [firm] budget from them next year to produce the Twilight Walk. In fact, they should also set aside funds for lower Pine, The Village and Waterfront. Let local folks work with them to create a sustainable, predictable calendar of events. It is such a large area, and focusing it all in a few blocks does not give us the bang for the buck.

Are you optimistic?

I am very optimistic about North Pine. We have Molina Healthcare’s California office taking almost 200,000 square feet of office space at the Millworks. It is going to change the area. With wonderful neighbors like the Molinas, we will grow the area and make improvement like the MADhaus project, and get the Bungalow and other buildings rented.

The biggest challenge for North Pine is the city-owned parking garage and it’s current leases and operations. It needs to be freed up for other projects in the area. It is only 20% utilized. What a waste!

On the good side, let’s not forget that 7th Street is a major cross street for the city. It connects the 710 to the 405, 22 and 605 freeways. This part of town has not gotten much love over the past years but, with the investments the Molinas, and my family, are making in the area, the hard work of a committed community, and a little help from the city, we can make it a shining gateway to downtown and Pine Ave.

It is a shame that, right now when you fly off the 710 down 6th Street, we do not have a more pleasant experience when entering downtown and crossing Pine. A lot can be done with the area without busting the budget. After all, think of how many times you drive down that street and think ‘Yuck!’ Instead of ‘Wow! This is nice! Downtown must be safe.’ Overcoming these perceptions is important if downtown is going to live up to the Downtown Community Plan.

There are two main criticisms that have been directed at the Downtown Plan. The first is that no more than a hundred or so of the current 50,000 affected residents participated in any planning. The other widely discussed concern is that the plan seems designed to serve the needs of people who have not yet moved to the area, and does little or nothing for those already living there, especially those people who are living in poverty. What’s your take on this?

I think these criticisms are valid, however, as an operator of affordable housing and a developer of commercial properties, I have a unique view of this plan. First, this plan, from a development standpoint, address some of the high levels of expensive government regulations that effect Long Beach. The plan’s major benefit is to remove some of the government-imposed costs and regulations of building, and developing, projects. This is good for jobs, and could lead to a greater supply of housing which could help lower the cost of living in the area. More to the point, it will help organizations like ours develop more affordable housing by lowering the costs.

The second benefit I see in this plan is to lower the parking requirements in downtown. We have so many parking spots in downtown. It is sickening! Lowering the parking requirements will get people out, walking. I walk everywhere downtown. It is one of the reasons I like living here.

Third, the criticism that this plan will displace 24,000 current residences is not valid in my opinion. The city currently has a Section 8 voucher program that funds many current low income tenants in downtown market rate apartments. The Section 8 program is my favorite affordable housing program because it addresses a few of the contentious issues regarding low income housing. Having people of lower incomes living next to market rate neighbors produces a better community by integrating incomes together and supporting diversity of prosperity. Furthermore, housing opportunities like the Park Pacific Tower are not going anywhere.

Also, to think that current housing with lower rents is going away any time soon is ignoring a few important barriers to that possibility. The jump from current use to building a high end project is difficult and has been historically funded with money from the RDA, which is gone. The cost to build something new is very expensive and will stay that way for a while. With that said, I see a benefit to additional gentrification for my residences at Park Pacific Tower and the other affordable housing tenants in downtown in that they might live in a nicer neighborhood.

I know the plan has its detractors, but in a city with high unemployment, significantly lower tax revenue in the least competitive state in the nation, I think it is a good step in the right direction. Let’s not forget that this addresses economic development that helps to create more and better paying jobs. One in three Californians receive some form of government subsidy. The middle class is fleeing at an alarming rate, turning California in to an income-bifurcated state with rich and poor.

Current regulations not only effect market rate developers, but also charities like ours, and are pushing investment and the middle class out of our state. The Downtown Community Plan is a good step in removing the self-imposed shackles oppressing capital investment and employment opportunities in our community, but more needs to be done if we are to return to the days of our more prosperous past generations.