Covina to Seize 3 Acres to Build Car Dealerships

The Covina Redevelopment Agency has decided to acquire a three-acre downtown site by eminent domain, paving the way for up to two more auto dealerships on Citrus Avenue and prompting a threat of legal action by a current tenant.

The City Council, sitting as the Redevelopment Agency Monday night, voted 4 to 1 to condemn the land. Mayor Robert Low dissented.

No dealership has agreed to move to the site on the southwest corner of Rowland Street and Citrus, but the agency should buy the land anyway, Community Development Director Michael Marquez stated in a report.

Even if the city were not able to secure a dealership for the land, it could resell the property and a new owner would probably be assessed twice the current property tax of $7,600, he said. If the land is occupied by an auto dealership, the city’s portion of sales tax revenue would be between $80,000 and $100,000 annually, more than double the current amount, said agency attorney Thomas Parrington.

Dealerships in Place

Two years ago, an Acura dealership replaced a strip of auto-related businesses on the northwest corner of Citrus and Rowland in the first phase of the Citrus Avenue Auto Centre project, according to Assistant Planner Shelby Williams. The expansion of an existing Volvo dealership next door will be completed next year as part of Phase I.

In Phase II, the agency plans to attract one or two dealerships to four acres at the intersection’s southwest corner, the site of the condemned property. The three-acre parcel is owned by Encino-based Oren Realty & Development Co. Inc. An adjacent acre has already been acquired for nearly $700,000, Marquez said.

Marvin Maltzman, vice president and attorney for one of the current tenants of the land, Sherman Oaks-based House of Fabrics, told the agency that it would be doing a disservice to the community by forcing the store to move.

When Marquez said that there were attractive sites elsewhere in the city and that the agency would help relocate the store, Maltzman responded, “not at the rent we’re currently paying.”

Maltzman said after the vote that he will fight the condemnation action in court. “It’s a shame to take two nice retailers away and put in another car dealership,” he said, referring to an arts supply store also on the site.

Jerry Oren, president of Oren Realty, which had rejected the agency’s offer of $2.3 million for the parcel, was also unhappy with the condemnation.

“They’re forcing us to sell,” he said. “We’d like to keep it and develop it into a shopping center.”

Parrington said negotiations to buy the property were complicated because the site is leased by Oakland-based Property Development Associates, which in turn has sublet it to House of Fabrics and Aaron Brothers, the arts supply store.

“There was a dispute as to the amount of compensation and which party was due what,” Parrington said. The agency’s decision Monday resolves the distribution problem, because whatever amount the site is appraised at will be turned over to the court, he said.

In Phase III, the plan’s final stage, a Ford dealership on the southwest corner of San Bernardino Road and Citrus will be improved, and the agency will acquire two acres at the northwest corner for the expansion of a Chevrolet dealership, Marquez said.