Stores, cafes may replace Wilmington refinery

Oil giant Phillips 66, operator of a massive oil refinery near the Port of Los Angeles, has unveiled plans to replace its belching smokestacks and hulking steel tanks with stores, restaurants and soccer fields.

- BY ROGER VINCENT

Phillips 66 announced last year that it would close the century-old refinery and remove it to make way for a new development intended to provide services and recreation for people who live nearby, along with warehouses to serve the port.

The refinery in L.A.'s Wilmington neighborhood received its last shipment of crude oil in September and should have it all processed by mid-October, Phillips 66 said.

The oil company last year engaged real estate companies Catellus Development Corp. and Deca Cos. to evaluate potential future uses for the site and the developers have rolled out their plans after hundreds of meetings with residents to see what they wanted in their neighborhood.

It turned out that one thing neighbors would actually miss about the refinery is Smilin' Jack, a 3-million-gallon oval storage tank that has been transformed into "the world's largest jack-o'-lantern" at Halloween since 1952, said Al Ortiz, spokesman for Phillips 66. It takes more than 100 gallons of paint to make Jack the perfect shade of orange and provide his distinctive facial features.

Smilin' Jack is making another great-pumpkin appearance this year and may show up again before demolition of the refinery is complete, Ortiz said.

When redevelopment of the 440-acre site is completed, one of the two playgrounds there will include a pumpkin-shaped play structure for kids in a nod to Smilin' Jack, planners said.

The new complex will be called Five Points Union, a reference to the complex five-point intersection of West Anaheim and North Gaffey streets at the northwestern corner of the refinery.