Bell : Redevelopment Job Begun

Ground breaking for Bell’s first Community Redevelopment Agency project took place Wednesday morning at Bandini Boulevard and Eastern Avenue.

The $8-million, 8.6-acre project will be built by Trammell Crow, a Dallas-based development firm which created the 400-acre Commerce Business Park. The Bell project will consist of two buildings totaling 156,000 square feet, one an office and service building and the other a warehouse or distribution center.

Trammell Crow spokesman Art Ansoorian said the project is evidence that Bell is seriously starting to diversify, realizing “we can’t make it just on card clubs.” Trammel Crow purchased the property from Bell for $2.7 million and has guaranteed that the project will deliver $75,000 in sales tax revenue to the city yearly.

The project is expected to be completed by December, Ansoorian said. This is the first project the redevelopment agency has put together from scratch since its founding in 1973, Director David D. Meyer said. The agency acquired six of the acres from the U.S. government in exchange for building an armory. The location had been considered both as a potential hotel site and as a hazardous waste disposal site. “This looks like the best land use we could get,” Meyer said.