The jury is still out on whether it was the late great Johnny Carson or the comedy duo of Rowan & Martin who coined the phrase “Beautiful Downtown Burbank” back in the late 1960s, but whatever the case, thanks to the magic of television.

The humble City of Burbank became the butt of a national joke. Akin to Dorothy Parker’s famous comment about Oakland, “there is no there there,” over the years the phrase became a snide soundbite, but that was then and this is now.

“We’ve come light years in making the downtown Burbank area an exciting magnet for quality retailers and entertainment providers so that they can, in turn, attract sophisticated shoppers and customers,” says Jack Lynch, deputy housing and redevelopment manager at the City of Burbank Redevelopment Agency.

Parlaying decades of what the Burbank Redevelopment Agency has come to see as the phrase’s “national brand equity,” the transformation of “Beautiful Downtown Burbank” has morphed the city’s once moribund San Fernando Boulevard from punch line into one of the country’s most heralded urban redevelopment and revitalization stories.

In the early 1960s, San Fernando Road between Olive and Magnolia Boulevards was closed to auto traffic and converted into the Golden Mall, a retail district six blocks long and two blocks wide with unimpeded pedestrian access, intended to pump life into the downtown district.

Within a decade, though, inadequate parking, poor building maintenance and the flight of retail customers to modern malls in Glendale and Woodland Hills meant a walk down the not-so-Golden Mall was more like a stroll through a high-desert ghost town.

The people who championed the Golden Mall concept “failed to see that there has to be a balance between access, the realities of functionality, simple economics, and the public’s expectations,” says Ruth Davidson-Guerra, the Agency’s assistant community development director.

“The original concept was fine for its time, but it wasn’t adaptable to a more mobile public with options as to where they want to shop, dine, and be entertained.”The writing was on the wall  or mall  and in 1971 the newly created Burbank Redevelopment Agency set out to revitalize Burbank’s downtown district with several benchmark improvements that set the pace for its resurgence.

Topping the list was the acquisition of land for the 1.2 million-square-foot Burbank Town Center (then called Media City Center Mall) by Alexander Haagen Properties, one of the largest shopping center developers in the country. The mall opened in October 1989 and was at the time the largest construction project in the San Fernando Valley.

That same year, San Fernando Road was reopened to auto traffic and a 505-space parking structure in the heart of downtown was built to augment 9,000 newly created free public parking spaces.According to the Agency’s website.

The new development master plan adopted in 2000 has attracted some $150 million in private investment and focused on three parcels of land “that were envisioned as catalysts for the full range of activities expected in a vital city core, such as street-level retail, new commercial space, great restaurants and in-town residential uses.” 

“We started out with three mixed areas that were merged into a larger development area six years ago,” says Burbank Community Development Director Sue Georgino, one of the principal architects of downtown Burbank’s resurgence.

“Even in the current economic situation, our overall strategy covers a reduction in state development funding by making what we’re doing attractive to the private investors and businesses the community needs to create jobs and prosper.”

The first phase was the 4,200-seat AMC 16 cinema megaplex, which was built in 2003 and sits on a 4.2-acre parcel just south of the Burbank Town Center, with nearly 120,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and service space. Since opening, the theater has consistently ranked in the top five in the country in terms of attendance and sales and attracts more than 2.2 million viewers annually.

The Olson Company developed the second and third phases in 2005: 14,000 square feet of restaurant/retail and 140 residential units, called the Burbank Village Walk and The Cusumano Civic Plaza consisting of 71,000 square feet of office space and 12,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

Burbank’s Downtown Tenant Assistance Program (D-TAP) has gone a long way in addressing the issue of long-term vacancies hampered by structural problems  such as retrofitting and earthquake bolting  by offering low-interest, forgivable loans for key retail tenants.

The program has helped attract retailers such as Urban Outfitters, Canada-based furniture company EQ3 and several restaurants to downtown.An initiative of the Burbank Redevelopment Agency, the Property-Based Business Improvement District (P-BID) has been instrumental in uniting downtown Burbank’s merchants, property owners, prospective tenants, brokers, developers, and residents.

In a joint “yeoman” effort to welcome visitors, direct cars throughout the 32-block district, create a free Wi-Fi “hotspot” throughout downtown, and energize a proactive marketing campaign aimed at prospective tenants, developers and corporations interested in relocating to Burbank.

The P-BID’s efforts have paid off handsomely as the district’s retail sales have topped more than $480 million in 2005, up a staggering 460 percent from the $86 million generated in 1994.The latest addition to Burbank’s ongoing downtown renaissance is.

The Collection, an $80 million mixed-use project boasting 40,000 square feet of urban retail space and restaurants, 118 luxury condominiums and one- to three-bedroom lofts ranging from 629 to 2,253 square feet in size.

“Downtown Burbank is a phenomenon that I’m extremely pleased to be a part of,” says Robert Champion, president of the Champion Development Group, which oversaw construction and development of the complex. “I’ve been watching the area evolve into something great, and am glad to be contributing to its future success.”

The Collection “is only the latest element in the strategic plan to do more than simply market downtown,” says Davidson-Guerra. “Downtown offers a lifestyle that’s attractive to those who’ve energized the overall growth of the Burbank community. It’s all here and that’s our message.”

Now covering a full 34 blocks of retail, office, residential and entertainment destinations, Downtown Burbank  dubbed “one of Southern California’s most appealing urban centers” by Sunset Magazine  is home to more than 200 shops and 80 restaurants.

The goal has been to “create the perfect blend of residential, retail and office activity that would fit the needs of an increasingly sophisticated ‘24/7’ population,” says Davidson-Guerra. “The quality of the businesses we’ve attracted speaks highly of what Burbank has to offer in terms of location and vision. We’ve come a long way from the Golden Mall.”Maybe even Johnny Carson would be proud.