Advertisement

Solar Project : Unfinished Retail Center Back on Beam

Share
Times Staff Writer

Robert A. Felburg is not your ordinary real estate developer. He’ll tell you that. His friends will tell you that. His enemies will tell you that.

At 64, Felburg has earned a reputation as one of the most eccentric businessmen in Ventura County. After all, how many other developers would send reporters a letter spelling out their substantial financial troubles? Or write articles advocating a quarantine of victims of AIDS?

While these and other activities have gained Felburg considerable local attention, he is most well known for his obsession with solar energy. He has become so enamored of the sun that he has made it a business partner--hence the name of his firm, Felburg and Sun.

Advertisement

That obsession has contributed to the long delay of completion of his controversial Olive Grove Shopping Center in Thousand Oaks, begun in 1978 and billed as the first shopping center in the nation to use solar energy for heating and cooling.

Near Bankruptcy

Yet, despite Felburg’s near bankruptcy and the seeming dashing of his hopes to build a solar city in Moorpark, the developer’s dream of a 210,000-square-foot shopping center and dinner theater is apparently about to come true at last.

Construction has begun anew on Olive Grove, near Hampshire Road and Westlake Boulevard. Felburg said several stores will be completed in days, while the rest will be finished by the end of October. The theater should be ready by the end of the year, he said.

And, characteristically, Felburg knows it will be successful. “It’s hard for me to understand why people would shop in an ordinary environment when they can shop among lakes, rapids, bridges, where it’s a pleasant, exciting experience--and pay the same amount.”

To nearby residents, however, the unfinished Olive Grove has been mostly an eyesore.

Homeowner Complaints

The center’s wooden skeleton sat dormant for five years while Felburg struggled with tremendous financial problems, including a reorganization under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy law.

During those years, homeowners complained regularly about the structure, calling it unsightly and a fire hazard. Two years ago, County Supervisor Edwin A. Jones organized a march protesting the unfinished building, an action that still evokes anger in Felburg.

Advertisement

In a recent interview, Felburg said he has been self-confident and aggressive throughout his years as an engineer, inventor and real estate developer: “There’s nothing I can’t do.”

Those who have worked with Felburg see him as something of a free spirit.

‘Innovative Approach’

“He has a very creative and innovative approach to building,” said Steve Rubenstein, president and chief executive officer of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. “Definitely, he’s eccentric, in my opinion.”

“In all honesty,” said Francis Prince, a former Thousand Oaks councilwoman, “he simply had his own visions about what he would like to do and frequently it would vary significantly from what other developers wanted to do.”

Felburg and a twin brother were born in Indianapolis and grew up in New Jersey. From childhood, he said, he was more interested in creating things than in playing with neighborhood friends. One such creation was a nozzle for toothpaste tubes.

In adulthood, Felburg said, he put his creative mind to use at several aerospace firms, before moving to Thousand Oaks and delving into real estate in the 1960s.

Felburg took engineering courses at night for 10 years but never graduated from college.

By the late 1970s, Felburg had amassed what he estimated to be $250 million worth of land, and had built the successful Palm Plaza, Evergreens and Village Oaks shopping and office centers in the area.

Advertisement

Then came Olive Grove.

Originally, Felburg had planned to supply heat and air conditioning to tenants using conventional gas and electrical systems. But the energy crisis of the mid-1970s and a growing belief that nuclear energy is dangerous led him to change his mind.

Convinced of the environmental benefits of solar energy, Felburg redesigned the center to use the sun for heating and cooling. He says his then-limited knowledge about solar power did not deter him.

‘I Can Do It’

“Anything I set my mind to do, I can do it,” he said. So he did it.

Felburg said the decision to redesign the center cost him millions. The solar system increased the cost of construction by $10 million, bringing the total to $50 million. He also had to replace $2 million worth of equipment and materials damaged by the weather during the five-year delay.

Because of the relative newness of solar technology in 1978, Felburg said, he could not persuade a bank to lend him enough money to complete construction, and halfway through, the funds dried up.

Felburg said he sold some of his properties to continue building, but filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in 1981. In the ensuing years, he lost his Westlake home, 35 acres of land in Solvang and the Village Oaks project to foreclosures.

He was also forced to sell or lost to foreclosure other parcels in Westlake and Newbury Park, and 3,800 acres in Moorpark, where he has dreamed of building “Solaris,” a city of solar-powered homes.

Advertisement

Lawsuits by Creditors

In the meantime, Felburg said, dozens of creditors started filing lawsuits against him. He said he has paid about half the creditors and hopes to pay the rest and remove himself from the Chapter 11 reorganization within six months.

Late last year, with Olive Grove’s wooden frame weathered by rain and sunshine, Felburg scraped together financing to complete the project.

“If I hadn’t decided to go into solar energy, this never would have happened,” Felburg conceded. “It’s too bad it cost me my fortune.” But, he said, “I don’t lose sleep over it.”

To nearby homeowners, the resumption of Olive Grove’s construction has been a relief. “I was concerned about it not ever being finished,” said E. C. Nicholides, president of the Village Homes Homeowners Assn. “It looked like a cemetery.”

Olive Grove’s 106 stores and 550-seat dinner theater are designed around bubbling brooks and waterfalls coursing through an inner courtyard. The 15,000 square feet of solar panels on the center’s roof will be nearly invisible as they heat thousands of gallons of water stored in underground tanks. Felburg said 85% of the retail space is already rented, even though it costs $2.50 a square foot. Comparable space in the area goes for about $1.75 a square foot, he said.

Solaris Project

Once Olive Grove is finished, Felburg plans to dedicate the rest of his life to building Solaris, even though he no longer owns the site. He sold it last year when the previous owner threatened to foreclose. State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and another man now own the property.

Advertisement

That doesn’t deter him. Nor does the cool reception the plan to build the 15,500-home solar city received from the Moorpark City Council, where Felburg now lives. Opponents said Felburg’s dream would add too many people too fast to a town of only 12,000 residents.

Not to worry, Felburg said.

“It’s a matter of working with the people and satisfying their fears,” he said. “I can’t think of anything to stop me. . . . Where there’s life, there’s hope.”

Advertisement