Pomona : Trade Center Pact Outlined

The proposed World Trade Center moved one step closer to reality last week when the City Council and a Los Angeles developer tentatively agreed on how the $90-million, 12-story structure might be financed.

The “memorandum of understanding,” which is not legally binding, spells out the terms of a financial partnership Urbanetics Inc. and the city hope to reach in the next few months, said Rose B. Ash, the city’s redevelopment coordinator. “It’s a kind of gentleman’s agreement,” Ash said.

The document says financing for the World Trade Center, which would include 220,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, a restaurant, a theater and an exhibition hall, would come mostly from private sources. The tentative plans call for the city to pay for an underground parking garage with $15 million in redevelopment funds to be recovered through parking revenues.

The city already has obtained a $5.2-million loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist in acquisition of property near the site on which the center would be built. Urbanetics has given the city a $25,000 deposit for 4.6 acres of land on the northwest corner of Garey Avenue and Mission Boulevard, where the firm hopes to build the center.