Glendora : New Auto Mall Under Way

Site preparation is under way for a 30-acre, eight-dealer auto mall that is expected to boost the city’s sales tax revenue by $2 million a year.

Last week, city officials, developers and dealers held a ground-breaking ceremony at the site, on both sides of Allen Avenue at the intersection of the Foothill (210) and Orange (57) freeways. Six dealerships selling Ford, Volkswagen, Dodge, Subaru, Pontiac, Chevrolet and recreational vehicles already have signed contracts.

Glendora Dodge, now on Alosta Avenue, will be one of the first dealerships to begin construction in the mall and is scheduled to open by March, 1990.

“I am extremely proud that we are able to undertake this project while I am mayor,” Mayor Len Martyns said in a prepared statement. “It was a long, difficult task, but the auto mall will be a great economic boon to the community.”

The mall, which will replace aging industrial buildings, is a joint project of Glendora’s redevelopment agency and Auto Center Associates. In 1985, the agency bought 14 acres of vacant land on the south side of Allen for $2.6 million. Three years later, it paid a manufacturing plant $9 million to acquire the remaining land needed for the auto mall.