Burbank to Sell Site Once Slated for Towncenter

The Burbank City Council, acting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, voted to sell former school property that at one time was to have been the site of a shopping mall.

City officials said they recently received several requests for the lease or purchase of the property at 2706 Thornton Ave., in downtown Burbank, occupied by what used to be the Ben Franklin Elementary School. The school has been closed for several years.

The proposed Towncenter shopping mall was to have been built on the 4.5-acre parcel, which was purchased from the Burbank Unified School District in 1983. When the Towncenter project collapsed earlier this year, officials said they felt they should sell the site.

The property, one of the few relatively vacant large industrial parcels in Burbank, has been valued at $4.5 million, officials said.

The city will sell the site through sealed bids, officials said.

In other action, the council gave a go-ahead to plans for a retail festival marketplace in downtown Burbank.

The council said it would negotiate exclusively with developer Thomas Tunnicliffe to develop a portion of a block bounded by Third Street, Olive Avenue, San Fernando Boulevard and Angeleno Avenue.

The agreement calls for Tunnicliffe to come up with a formal plan within a year.

Tunnicliffe’s rough plan calls for building a retail complex of 80,000 square feet and a 600-space parking structure.