Pomona Tries to Clinch Deal for Regional Mall

Wary of competition from proposed shopping malls in neighboring San Bernardino County, city officials are scrambling to clinch a deal for their own mall project, in limbo since the discovery of contaminated soil on the site last year.

Officials consider development of the regional mall a key to Pomona’s economic revitalization.

City Administrator Julio Fuentes met Tuesday with representatives from May Centers Inc. to try to revive their interest in the project, proposed for the northwest corner of the Pomona Freeway and the Corona Expressway.

“We have the best site, the freeway location and visibility,” Fuentes said. “We own all of our land. We have the zoning and we have a plan in place.”

Officials of May Centers Inc., partly owned by May Department Stores, signed a preliminary agreement with Pomona in 1988 to build a mall with 100 stores, including at least three department stores. The project would have provided Pomona with more than $2.7 million a year in tax revenue and created 2,200 jobs. But the preliminary agreement expired in March, 1989, without the signing of a disposition and development agreement that would have carried the project forward.

The agreement lapsed after the discovery of contaminated soil on the proposed site, a former hog farm and dump. Fuentes met Tuesday with officials from May Centers to report progress in dealing with the contaminated soil and to invite renewed participation. “They seemed to be very interested,” Fuentes said. A spokeswoman for the company, which is based in St. Louis, would say only that officials are “still exploring the Pomona-Chino market.”

Douglas Dunlap, deputy executive director of Pomona’s redevelopment agency, said May Centers officials were initially concerned that the contamination might be so pervasive that cleanup for mall construction would be prohibitively expensive.

But, Dunlap said, preliminary tests indicate that the contamination consists mainly of glass and metals confined to two of the 74 acres and that the problem can be solved at a cost of $750,000 to $3 million.

Dunlap said the city has spent $300,000 so far analyzing the contamination. It has hired consultants to prepare a cleanup plan and to develop a plan for determining responsibility for the cleanup costs. Those who hauled trash to the dump could be liable, he said.

Fuentes said the contamination problem is “extremely manageable” and should not retard development.

Meanwhile, officials said, the city is considering two other developers’ proposals for the site, which the redevelopment agency acquired for $8 million about eight years ago.

Dunlap said the city is reviewing proposals from Alexander Haagen Inc. of Manhattan Beach and Forest City Commercial Development of Los Angeles, both experienced builders of shopping centers. Forest City’s projects include the Galleria at South Bay in Redondo Beach, Laurel Plaza in North Hollywood and the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville. Haagen’s projects include the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles and the Chino Town Center.

Fuentes said the city hopes to complete an agreement with one of the three developers in four to six months.

Meanwhile, less than 2 1/2 miles away in Chino, Homart Development Co., affiliated with Sears, is moving to build an 88-acre regional mall with five department stores at a site along the Corona Expressway.

And between the Chino and Pomona sites is a third location in the Chino Hills where Bramalea California Inc. has declared its intention to develop a regional mall.

All of which points to a shopping mall showdown somewhere down the road.

Rick Moses, a Homart vice president, said that the Pomona-Chino market will support only one regional mall and that his project is the most advanced.

“We have had conversations with several department stores,” he said. “We have strong interest from two and we’re talking to two others.” He declined to name the companies. Plans call for starting mall construction in 1993 and opening the first phase, with at least three department stores, in 1994. Plans for the project have been submitted to the city of Chino for approval.

David Wheeler, ownership representative for Majestic Realty, a partner in the deal, said the project is timed to coincide with the upgrading of the Corona Expressway, which is now only a two-lane road as it passes the shopping center site at Grand Avenue. A stretch of the expressway is scheduled to become a full-fledged freeway by 1993.

Dunlap said the Pomona mall site is superior because it would have access from both the Pomona Freeway and the Corona Expressway. But Wheeler said that advantage is offset by the fact that the Pomona site is closer to the competing Montclair Plaza and Puente Hills shopping centers. It would be easier for the Chino site to establish its own market area, he said.

While Pomona struggles to build its regional shopping center, it also is facing difficulties in reviving its moribund downtown commercial area.

The City Council last fall approved a preliminary agreement with CSA Real Estate Development Inc. of Anaheim to create a $50-million commercial complex that would have included a new home for Buffums department store. But Dunlap said the developer was unable to move forward and the preliminary agreement expired last month.

Four other developers have offered to undertake downtown projects, he said, and the city has begun evaluating their qualifications.