Pico Rivera : Last Parcel for Retail Center

The Pico Rivera Redevelopment Agency has agreed to pay $700,000 for the final piece of land it needs to make way for a 224,000-square-foot shopping center on Whittier Boulevard, City Manager Dennis Courtemarche said.

Attorneys for the Redevelopment Agency and Gary Lazar, president of California Target Enterprises Inc., are writing an agreement to finalize the sale of the lot at 9006 Whittier Blvd., Courtemarche said. Target Enterprises operated a gasoline station on the lot, which is owned by Lazar and his former wife, Rebecca. The firm operates more than 100 service stations throughout Southern California.

The Redevelopment Agency entered into an agreement with the Bellevue, Wash.-based Rainier Fund in 1984 to develop the shopping center dubbed Crossroads Plaza. The shopping center will include a 60,000-square-foot supermarket, a 115,000-square-foot home improvement center and about 50,000 square feet of additional store and restaurant space.

The Redevelopment Agency filed an eminent domain complaint in Superior Court last July when negotiations with the Lazars stalled. Lazar objected to Rainier Fund’s plans to sell the parcel to Exxon Corp. for a self-service gasoline station. Plans for the gasoline station have been dropped, and now retail shops will be built on the site, Courtemarche said.