Cerritos : Towne Center Pact Final

The City Council has given final approval for a Torrance-based company to build the $130-million Towne Center development, which is expected to create 4,420 jobs and pump millions of dollars into the local economy over the next century.

The five-member council last week voted unanimously for Transpacific Development Co. to build an eight-story, 400-room luxury hotel, several restaurants and a series of office buildings with more than 1 million square feet of space across from City Hall at Bloomfield Avenue and 183rd Street.

Transpacific is to build the project in stages beginning in December and continuing through 1994, starting with the hotel and office buildings.

The development will be within 48.5 acres of the “Golden Triangle,” a vacant site of about 125 acres bounded by Bloomfield, 183rd and the Artesia Freeway. The entire site was purchased by Cerritos in 1982 for $38.6 million.

The agreement between the city and Transpacific calls for the city to lease the 48.5 acres to Transpacific to 99 years. The city in return is to receive a large portion of the ground rents as well as bed and sales taxes. During the first 20 years the project is expected to generate $102 million in income for the city. When the lease expires at the end of the 99 years, the city will get back all the property and the buildings.

To speed up construction, the Redevelopment Agency agreed to give Transpacific a $5-million interest-free loan. The agency will also give Transpacific $750,000 a year to subsidize hotel operations until the facility begins turning a profit.

To ease anticipated traffic congestion around the Towne Center, the agency has also spent $8.6 million widening streets and adding sidewalks and greenbelts.

The city is also continuing to negotiate with General Growth of California, a Canoga Park-based company, to build a shopping mall anchored by three or four department stores on 40 acres of the site.