After The 10 Freeway Fire, What's Up With The Businesses Under The Freeway?

If you step into Chase White’s Recycled Movie Sets, you’ll see materials from old movie and TV shows: big steel structures, carpet, plywood and more. His company recycles them, selling or renting the old pieces to lower budget productions and everyday consumers, keeping it out of landfills.

He’s been operating his company for seven years out of an "airspace" underneath the 10 Freeway at Olympic and Elwood.

But now he has until Dec. 31 to vacate the premises.

“We can move a fair amount of stuff, but as you can see, we deal with very large structures and it's hard to find a good warehouse space in Los Angeles, especially on such a short timeline,” White said.

Order to vacate

Recycled Movie Sets has become a casualty of the fire in early November that shut down the 10 Freeway for more than a week near downtown.

The fire was ignited in a pallet yard two blocks away, but it was not the actual flames that affected White’s business.

The incident raised questions about the kinds of businesses operating under freeways in L.A., revealing issues like violations of subleasing agreements and rules regarding what items could be stored in these spaces — and what couldn’t. It triggered an investigation of all the nearby businesses.

The entrance to Recycled Movie Sets, a business that operates under the 10 freeway

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Monica Bushman

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LAist

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The L.A Fire Department identified Recycled Movie Sets along with 49 other spots as being similar to the location that erupted in flames. White’s business and almost two dozen others were referred to the state fire marshal.

“If any fire risk issues are identified, Caltrans will immediately provide notices to the lessees to correct them,” said Eric Menjivar, a spokesperson for Caltrans District 7, in a statement last month.

The order to vacate was sent to White’s landlord, Knajn LLC, on Dec. 1.

A Caltrans spokesperson told us the reason it issued the notice to vacate was “in response to the State Fire Marshal’s inspection finding open storage at that location in violation of the lease terms. This included storing combustibles and flammable items, which are prohibited from all Airspace lease sites.”

The Airspace program

Caltrans allows private companies to rent land under freeways through the airspace program. White explained these spaces go up for auction and different groups of people can go in and bid on the properties for long term leases.

“These spaces are designed to help businesses grow. They’re very cost effective,” he said. “I moved here from a 7,000-square-foot facility and this allowed us to take on more materials, to create more jobs, to have more space for our trucks and trailers to operate."

Chase White is the owner of Recycled Movie Sets, which has operated under the 10 freeway for seven years. Now he needs to leave the premises by Dec. 31.

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Tony Morales

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LAist

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White subleases his space from Knajn LLC which, in turn, rents it from CalTrans, and he said he’s been in compliance.

Recycled Movie Sets was most recently inspected in 2021 and 2022, according to Caltrans. White said after the 2021 visit, which was prompted by a tractor trailer crashing down into his property and burning some of his inventory, he was asked to put in sprinklers and get more fire extinguishers, which he said he did.

“My property managers are very involved with our compliance, our safety,” White said. “The business has always been made out of wood and steel structures. You know, it's always been on our radar that, you know, this kind of incident could happen. But I'm fortunate that our property managers have worked with us and been very, very good."

It’s for all of these reasons that White is still struggling to understand why he's been asked to leave. He describes it as a "knee-jerk" reaction.

White's story aside, there are issues with the airspace program in LA. As the November fire revealed, there are sometimes safety concerns and violations around leasing and subleasing agreements.

Providing opportunity

Recycled Movie Sets' mission is to keep recyclable materials out of landfills, but it also provides jobs for struggling Angelenos who need help returning to the workforce.

“We're a for-profit business, we're a social enterprise, which means we support other nonprofits and their goals,” White said.

He added that he hires workers through programs at the Midnight Mission, Homeboy Industries, the Immersive Art Collective.

As far as what’s next, White said, “I guess we'll be a phoenix that rises from the ashes. We have a good infrastructure, we have a good long game. People need our resources.”

To learn more about the network of businesses underneath L.A. freeways, listen to the latest How To LA podcast episode.