IE's economic engines | the old school house

Building on success
HARRY WU COMPLETES A DREAM PROJECT

CLAREMONT
BY WILL BIGHAM, PHOTOS BY MEDIHA FEJZAGIC DIMARTINO

WHILE a slowing economy has put several condominium projects in the city on hold, Harry Wu, developer of the Old School House property, hasn’t hesitated.

After completing an extensive overhaul of the DoubleTree Hotel in 2006, Wu is close to finishing renovations at the Old School House shopping center at Indian Hill and Foothill boulevards. And he plans to begin constructing about 125 condos next year.

For Wu, the key difference between the city’s stalled projects and his fast-moving development is the extent of his planning. “If we know exactly what we are heading into, then we have no fear,” he said. In his 29 years in the development business, Wu’s largest and most ambitious project is the current one in Claremont. In addition to the elements of the project already mentioned, a Trader Joe’s supermarket opened on site this year. Plans also call for several pedestrian-friendly plaza areas and a new facade for the Candlelight Pavilion.

“You don’t usually see a guy who’s not with a bigger company take on a project with so many different uses like this,” said Brian Desatnik, Claremont’s housing and redevelopment manager.

Wu chose The Old School House project because it combines the best elements of development: creativity, innovation and profitability.

“The Old School House project is basically the kind of project that I have been dreaming of,” he said.

The 60-year-old Wu is a native of Taiwan who moved to the United States as a 25-year-old student. Wu decided to stay after seeing the opportunities in the region and entered the development business “accidentally."

“I was seeing people able to make a good business out of real estate, so I started from small projects,” he said.

His first project was a strip mall in Hacienda Heights that he completed in 1971 at age 31. Since then he has finished 20 to 30 projects, most of them in Southern California, and he has a new sub-division with 22 luxury homes currently on hold in Diamond Bar.

Claremont city officials and other prominent community members have praised Wu for his dedicated work in the city. The DoubleTree, formerly called the Claremont Inn, had become run down since its peak in the mid-’80s.

“Nobody really liked to stay there,” Desatnik said. “A lot of people in town wouldn’t recommend staying there. The colleges wouldn’t use it."

Under Wu’s guidance, the hotel has turned around. He revamped the rooms, added a courtyard, several conference rooms and an attractive outdoor patio.

“(It’s) a huge asset to the city, not just in terms of what it brings in financially, but what it provides as an amenity,” Desatnik said.

The property was converted into a shopping center about two years later, said Claremont historian Ginger Elliott, executive director of Claremont Heritage.

It peaked in popularity in the mid to late ’70s but had deteriorated in quality and popularity in recent years, she said.

Elliott says the building is now “far more attractive and usable. I think (Wu) is restoring a building in a way that we weren’t sure anyone would really be willing to do.”