As a $30 million renovation of three historic waterfront warehouses nears completion, a moonshot plan to make Southern California an international leader in the “blue economy” is taking shape in San Pedro.
The complex, located in the Port of Los Angeles’ Alta Sea, is home to ocean-centric businesses such as the headquarters of explorer Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck wreckage. His research ship, the Nautilus, is docked there, as is the Pacific Union, a ship that farms mussels in the high seas.
On barges docked at the AltaSea pier, scientists from the University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the California Institute of Technology are developing methods to reduce ocean carbon dioxide and technology to purify ship exhaust pipes. Other tenants in the former warehouse include startups building a new generation of remote seafloor cameras and 3D printers to make parts for offshore wind, wave and solar farms.
Jenny Cornuelle Krusoe, executive vice president and chief operating officer of AltaSea, Port of Los Angeles.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Aerial view of the Captura, a barge in the Alta Sea, as the crew monitors equipment used to extract carbon dioxide from seawater.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“AltaSea is a combination of education, research and business,” said Jenny Krusoe, executive vice president and chief operating officer. She added that its size and waterfront location make AltaSea “a unicorn piece of real estate, basically designed to be the mother ship of the blue economy”.
Mayor Karen Bass and others involved with Alta Sea, including City Councilman Tim McOske and Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, are expected to officially open the facilities in a ceremony on Wednesday.
AltaSea brings a new purpose to a once-bridled terminal that played an important role in the development of Southern California.
In the early 20th century, Los Angeles businessmen and city leaders set out to capture a piece of the growing global shipping trade with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. On the waterfront, there are long stretches of warehouses where burly longshoremen load and unload boats onto trains, trolleys and trucks.
The development of container transportation after World War II gradually made the city’s Pier 1 no longer suitable for transporting goods, and the pier was rarely used for decades. By 2011, advocates, including port officials See it for what it is: 35 acres of curated land for research centers and technology companies focused on the sustainable use of the world’s oceans.
A key part of a nonprofit’s mission is to create jobs for pioneering companies. These include the nonprofit AltaSeads Conservancy, the largest aquaculture seed bank in the United States. Like terrestrial seed banks, aquaculture seed banks are designed to protect the genetic diversity of plants into the future. AltaSeads is also promoting the use of kelp as an easy-to-grow resource.
“This is a super versatile crop that can provide food for people and livestock while removing carbon from the atmosphere,” said Emily Aguirre, a scientist at AltaSeads. “It can also be used to fertilize land-based agriculture, which is great. Because if you plant it in the ocean, you’re not taking up any land.”
Michael Marty Rivera and Emily Aguirre of AltaSeads Sanctuary monitor kelp species in storage tanks.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Aguirre said kelp is also a source of algae that can reduce methane emissions from dairy cows and has many other food applications, including reducing freezer burn in ice cream.
Israeli company Eco Wave Power plans to install the United States’ first onshore wave energy test station in the port’s main channel next to the Alta Sea in the coming months. Floating systems attach directly to existing structures – such as breakwaters, piers and breakwaters – and generate energy from the constant movement of waves. Another AltaSea operation, CorPower Ocean, uses buoys and hydraulics to produce energy.
Rustom Jehangir, founder and CEO of Blue Robotics, demonstrated his BlueROV2, a high-performance remotely operated vehicle that can be used for inspection, research and exploration.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
To this day, AltaSea’s emblematic whale is Ballard, who set up shop on the old pier a few years ago and has attracted public interest as a deep-sea explorer and scientific researcher. This is his headquarters and R&D center.
The solar panel array on AltaSea’s roof is larger than three football fields and generates 2.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 700 homes per year, more energy than the entire campus requires when operating at full capacity.
BlueROV2 vehicle.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
To fund the terminal’s redevelopment, AltaSea received $29 million from the state, the Port of Los Angeles and private donors. The funds are used to build, install solar panels and build the park in the future.
AltaSea is one of several two-year projects aimed at cleaning the port’s air and water and turning idle docks, docks and warehouses into places where more people want to work or visit, port officials said.
“Drawing people to our waterfront has been a hallmark of the Port of Los Angeles for decades, and this latest investment will truly take us to the next level,” Seroka said in 2020.
Before the pandemic, about 3 million people visited the Los Angeles waterfront each year for recreation, and port leaders hope that number will double in the coming years. To pave the way for new development catering to tourists, the Port of Los Angeles will invest about $1 billion over 10 years in infrastructure improvements, Seroka said. Private developers building AltaSea and other projects are expected to invest $500 million.
Taylor Marchment, director of manufacturing R&D at RCAM Technologies, demonstrated 3D concrete printing for offshore renewable energy.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
One such project, Westport, is the long-planned redevelopment of a 42-acre site that was once home to Ports O’ Call, a kitschy model of a New England fishing village built in In the 1960s, it was later favored from a few years ago and was razed in 2018.
The dining, shopping and entertainment center’s main restaurants will include Yamashiro, the second location of the Japanese-themed Hollywood destination for locals and tourists. Another large restaurant will have a Mexican theme and feature a floating bar. There will also be a food court and Bark Social, a members-only off-leash dog park, bars and cafes. The complex is expected to open next year.
Dustin Trani, whose family has been in the local restaurant business for nearly a century, said the waterfront development represents the improvement San Pedro residents have been waiting to see for decades. Last year, the chef opened the Trani Marina Station seafood restaurant between Altamar and Westport, partly to capitalize on an expected influx of tourists.
“We are on the cusp of a huge economic boom that has not yet occurred in this region,” Trani said.
