Arcadia : Firm Sues Agency and Wins

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge last week ordered the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency to pay Rentype Inc. $32,500 plus three years’ interest for lost profits resulting from the agency’s precondemnation actions.

The East Huntington Drive office supply firm filed for a building permit to remodel its offices in 1984. Rentype President Roger Mabry said the agency refused to permit the remodeling unless the company agreed to a list of conditions, one of them being that the business would cease to operate within five years.

The agency also wanted the firm to agree not to ask for more than $50,000 in reimbursement for any improvements if the agency decided to acquire the property, Mabry said. The remodeling would have cost from $100,000 to $150,000.

Rentype, which has since moved to Azusa, rejected the conditions and never got the permit.

The agency acquired the business by eminent domain in 1987. The land is now a parking lot near the new Automobile Club of Southern California headquarters.