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Glendale officials open up Rockhaven site to prospective developers for a guided tour

The city of Glendale held a tour of Rockhaven Sanitarium for prospective developers, on Honolulu Ave. in Montrose on Thursday, June 30, 2016.

The city of Glendale held a tour of Rockhaven Sanitarium for prospective developers, on Honolulu Ave. in Montrose on Thursday, June 30, 2016.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
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Developers and architects interested in reviving the former Rockhaven Sanitarium were given a guided tour of the historic property on Thursday.

The 3.3-acre campus, owned by the city of Glendale, is usually closed to the public, but that may not be the case in the future as the City Council this month opened up an application process to find an adaptive reuse for Rockhaven.

That means using as much of the existing site’s features and preserving its history as much as possible in a proposed project.

But there is some wiggle room.

Standing in front of Rockhaven’s 15 small buildings, Jay Platt, senior urban designer with the city, said a few of them, such as the one closest to the Honolulu Avenue entrance, can be demolished.

“This is a building we can tear down tomorrow, if someone wants to,” he said, adding that the structure was built in the 1970s. The rest of the buildings are much more historically significant because they date back to the early 1920s when Agnes Richards first opened Rockhaven as a sanitarium for women.

The rows of structures, linked by winding concrete paths, used to be living quarters, dining rooms and activity rooms.

The property closed in 2006, and the city bought it two years later for $8.25 million to protect it from being developed into a senior-living facility.

I’m not surprised that it’s been a multiyear process, and [the city] hasn’t found a developer at this point. I think it’s going to be an uphill battle.

— Dana Smith, senior associate director of business development for architecture firm Johnson Fain

Just this spring, the campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

That adds layers of protections on what can be done with Rockhaven, but Platt said the city would be pushing for those preservation standards regardless.

In fact, the council recently established a scoring system for evaluating proposals that gave the most weight to preservation and creating open space for the public, which will likely happen via the plot of land near the entrance on Honolulu Avenue.

Given all that, outside interests already know it’s going to be a difficult project.

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“A lot of work needs to be done,” said Dana Smith, senior associate director of business development for Johnson Fain, the architecture firm that designed Nestle’s headquarters building in Glendale. “I’m not surprised that it’s been a multiyear process, and [the city] hasn’t found a developer at this point. I think it’s going to be an uphill battle.”

Smith was at the tour to meet and network with developers, none of whom would comment on their possible plans for the site.

In the past year, two interested parties emerged: One wants to revert Rockhaven back to a mental health facility — one that would likely be closed to the public — while another wants to renovate the historic property into a boutique shopping center.

Developers have until July 28 to submit their plans, and the council will likely vote on a proposal by the end of the year.

Rockhaven is usually closed to the public, but that may not be the case in the future as the Glendale City Council this month opened up an application process to find an adaptive reuse for the former sanitarium.

Rockhaven is usually closed to the public, but that may not be the case in the future as the Glendale City Council this month opened up an application process to find an adaptive reuse for the former sanitarium.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Joanna Linkchorst, president of the Friends of Rockhaven, said she favors the current batch of interested developers compared to the ones two years ago during the city’s first attempt to make something of the site.

Back then, it was mostly people who wanted to build condos on the property, but now, there’s a more refined group that is more open to the concept of adaptive reuse, she said. That’s also the impression she got from the tour group on Thursday.

“They are more historically sensitive, adaptive-reuse people,” she said.

As for the building Platt said could be torn down, Linkchorst said she’d favor that because it would no longer obstruct views of much older structures.

However, she also said she’s not necessarily optimistic because the city is not having meetings with local stakeholders who rejected all proposals two years ago.

“They started moving forward without consulting the community in the intimate way they did last time,” Linkchorst said.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian

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