Montebello : Talks Begin Over Site for Auto Mall, Retail Center

The Montebello City Council has taken the first step toward construction of a 30-acre auto mall and shopping center less than a mile from the 4-year-old Montebello Town Center by opening negotiations with the landowner and developers, city officials announced this week.

The proposed project also includes plans for what would be the city’s only movie theater complex, City Hall spokeswoman Joan Caterino said. If negotiations go as planned, Caterino said, the complex of shops, restaurants and theaters would open in 1991.

There once were two theaters on Whittier Boulevard in Montebello. But since they went out of business years ago, moviegoers have had to travel to nearby cities to watch feature films. City officials pressing to have eminent domain power in south Montebello two months ago, promised south Montebello voters that a theater would be built in their neighborhood.

Caterino estimated the retail center would generate about $600,000 in sales tax revenue in its first year of operation and $1.2 million per year after that.

The Community Redevelopment Agency is negotiating with the Alexander Haagan Co. and Chevron Land and Development, which owns the vacant land at Paramount and Montebello boulevards near the Pomona Freeway. City officials are also negotiating with a local Whittier Boulevard auto dealer to develop the auto mall. At least four dealers would be located there.