$550,000 Offered for Old Depot : Monrovia: City officials have moved to acquire the vacant Santa Fe Railroad station on South Myrtle Avenue.

It may be a fixer-upper, but city officials are offering $550,000 for a vacant railroad depot they believe has the makings of a showplace.

The Monrovia Redevelopment Agency has offered to buy the former Santa Fe Railroad Depot from the Santa Fe Pacific Corp., which is considering the bid. Tuesday, the agency board, composed of members of the City Council, tried to speed up the process by initiating eminent domain proceedings against the corporation.

The agency board voted 5 to 0 to condemn the 60,000-square-foot South Myrtle Avenue property.

City officials want to have some control over the fate of the station, which railroad officials have considered razing because of liability concerns. Santa Fe officials do not oppose the “friendly condemnation,” a company spokesman said.

“Everyone would like to see the depot preserved,” city Community Development Director Don Hopper wrote in a memo. “The real trick is to do this so it is economically viable.”

If the city buys the dilapidated depot, it may turn it over to developers for restoration. The city already has received a number of proposals for the site, including one by a train buff who wants to turn the depot into a museum and to transform the site into a commuter center, with a park-and-ride facility and a campground for recreational vehicles.

A group of local developers has proposed creating a theme business park with office and research and development facilities that would match the Spanish colonial revival architecture of the former train station.

All proposals have been put on hold until the acquisition is completed, and the city has assigned a task force to explore options for the site, said Redevelopment Division Manager Glenn Cox.

The city has been negotiating for more than a year with the Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corp., an affiliate of the railroad company, Hopper said.

But there has been little progress, and both sides agree that the friendly condemnation might be the quickest way out of the impasse.

“It’s just a method of speeding up the transfer,” said Santa Fe spokesman Mike Martin.

The Kansas-based firm is reviewing the city’s offer of $550,000 for the building and lot north of the railroad tracks.

The cream-colored building, with a red tile roof and wrought-iron window grilles, was built in 1925, said Steve Baker, president of the Monrovia Historical Society. It replaced the original wooden depot that welcomed the first train to pass through the city--from San Bernardino to Los Angeles--in 1886.

Though there are some cosmetic flaws, the building’s structure is sound, Baker said. “It’s basically in good shape,” he said, adding that he is relieved the city is interested in its future. “It’s one of a kind, and the only surviving example (in Monrovia) of a railroad building, period.”

As negotiations continue, the city got permission to erect a chain-link fence to protect the structure from vandals. Still, blankets, broken beer bottles and bits of trash were strewn within the fence one recent morning.

Several other San Gabriel Valley cities have moved to preserve their old depots.

In December, Claremont purchased the 1st Street station, built in the same Spanish style as the Monrovia depot. Constructed in 1927 and listed as a national historic building, the Claremont station has been vacant since 1967, said Betty Sheldon, assistant to the city manager. The city will restore the building, and officials plan to turn it into a transit center.

Pasadena, with assistance from the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, is trying to acquire the former Santa Fe station on Arroyo Parkway.

The city and the commission would like to turn the 1935 depot, now used as an Amtrak station, into a stop for a commuter rail line from Los Angeles, Pasadena Transportation Manager Dave Barnhart said. However, the owner, Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corp., is fighting the purchase.

San Dimas bought its depot, built in 1932, in the early 1970s. The building, on Bonita Avenue, has since served as the Chamber of Commerce office, and is now a senior center.

In the late 1960s, residents in Arcadia saved two local Santa Fe stations from the wrecking ball. The Santa Anita depot, built in 1890 and busy until 1940, was bought by a group of private citizens and moved to the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum for display. Train enthusiasts bought another station and turned it into an exhibit at the Pomona Fairplex.