20-Story Tower Planned : Agency OKs Plans for High-Rise

The Glendale Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday approved modified plans to speed traffic circulation around the city’s largest proposed high-rise office and retail development.

Agency members voted 3 to 2 to permit Homart Development Co. of Chicago to proceed with plans to build a 20-story office and retail development at Broadway and Brand Boulevard, directly north of the Glendale Galleria. The site has been vacant for five years.

The developer plans to build a second tower 22 stories high after the first phase of the project is completed. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin early next year, said Barbara Knight, acting redevelopment director.

Agency members Larry Zarian and Ginger Bremberg have consistently voted against the project on the grounds that the 790,000-square-foot development is 90,000 square feet larger than the city had deemed suitable for the site and that it will worsen downtown traffic congestion.

In the wake of objections, the developer this week agreed to install additional traffic turn lanes, restrict the flow of traffic out of a parking garage to right turns only and update traffic signals at major intersections to allow protected left turns.

Despite the changes, Zarian and Bremberg still voted against the project.

Homart proposes to build the 20-story tower at the southern end of the block bounded by Broadway, Brand, Wilson Avenue and Orange Street. A temporary park will be built on the northern end of the block, where the 22-story tower eventually will be built. The block now is surrounded by a deteriorating construction fence.