Pomona Gives Tentative OK to $50-Million Retail Project

The City Council has approved a preliminary agreement with an Anaheim developer who is proposing a $50-million retail complex in downtown Pomona that would include a relocated, modernized Buffums department store.

Although the plans are tentative, council members said the project could revitalize the center of the city.

“It is one of the best ideas that has come along in a long time,” said Councilwoman Nell Soto.

The complex, which would include a supermarket, furniture store, other retail shops and offices, would be built on 30 acres bounded by Mission Boulevard on the south, 3rd Street on the north, Garey Avenue on the west, and Eleanor Street on the east.

The site is just south of the Pomona Mall, where the last major retailer, Buffums, is planning to vacate its building when its lease expires in 1992.

Buffums’ Interest

Although Buffums has not made a commitment to the plan, Frank Buehler, vice president of operations for the 16-store Buffums chain, said his company is “very interested in staying in Pomona,” but not in its present building.

“We have a very high rent structure, and we’re in an aging building,” Buehler said. In addition, he said, the current store is twice as large as Buffums needs. He said the company would like to move its Pomona store to a building with 60,000 square feet.

“We’ve made it very clear that we want to stay in Pomona,” Buehler said. “Our business has been very good.”

Successful Sale

Sales volume declined several years ago, he said, but has improved in the last two or three years. He said the store staged a highly successful warehouse sale in August, which grossed nearly $1 million in a single weekend.

The project proposed to the City Council by Marshall Krupp, president of CSA Real Estate Development Inc., would include efforts to find new uses for the existing Buffums store, perhaps as retail shops, offices or as a movie theater complex.

Councilman Mark Nymeyer said that, although “Buffums ought to stay and I’d like to help them,” the relocation of that department store will not by itself add anything new to Pomona. The project, on the other hand, would give Pomona a badly needed new supermarket, as well as other stores.

CSA Real Estate and the Redevelopment Agency will have 160 days to negotiate a disposition and development agreement that will spell out terms of the project, including the commitments of the developer and the redevelopment agency.

City’s Help

Krupp said his firm will need the city’s assistance in acquiring land and financing the project. Because the site is in an area where private financing would be difficult to obtain, the complex could not be built without some public financing, Krupp said.

The preliminary agreement approved this week outlines the negotiating process and sets various deadlines for the project. It calls for the developer to submit a statement to the city within 15 days that will outline the proposed expenditures and revenues from the project and the requested financial assistance.

Krupp said about 60% of the property is already owned by the city or the Redevelopment Agency. The eight-square-block area contains at least two buildings--a branch of the Bank of America and an office building--that would be integrated into the project. The site includes some parking lots, a few houses and a number of businesses, including gas stations, a car wash and fast-food outlets.

‘Solid’ Proposal

William P. Curley III, deputy city attorney, said Pomona has received other development proposals for the downtown area, but “nothing of this magnitude or this solid.”

Soto urged the city to use caution in negotiating a development agreement. “There isn’t anything I would like better than to revitalize downtown,” she said, “but sometimes in our anxiety to get development, we give away the store.”

Krupp and Curley assured the council that the city will not be committed to the project until the financial details are worked out and approved by the council.