Sport Chalet Could Face Year Delay

Adverse economic conditions have forced a delay in development of the proposed Sport Chalet shopping village in La Canada Flintridge for up to a year, a company official said this week.

“This is not exactly the best time to go out and lease space,” said Robert Haueter, vice president of marketing for the sporting goods chain. However, he said the company “expects the recession to bottom out soon. Things are starting to improve already.”

The La Canada Flintridge City Council earlier this month granted the Sport Chalet until July, 1992, to begin construction of the $25-million project. The development, first proposed more than seven years ago, was approved last July after a year of public hearings and heated debate. The initial approval required the developer to break ground by this July.

Owners of the plan to replace an antiquated complex of retail stores on an 11.7-acre site at Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway with a tony, European-style village.

The major tenants would be a new Sport Chalet store, offices for the company’s headquarters and a Bristol Farms market, which together would take up about half the space in the 140,000-square-foot development, Haueter said. However, tenants have not been secured for the remainder of the retail and restaurant space, he said.

The Sport Chalet was originally opened at the site more than 30 years ago by owners Norbert and Irene Olberz. The chain in recent years has branched out to 11 other locations throughout Southern California, including four new stores opened in the last nine months, Haueter said.

All of the other stores, however, are leased. The La Canada project would be the first development undertaken by the company.