Firm Told to Redo Plan Near Jungleland : Thousand Oaks: The council gives the builder six months to revise the project after a hotel is dropped from the complex.

Thousand Oaks officials have sent a Los Angeles developer back to the drawing board to redraft plans for the retail project east of the Jungleland civic arts center.

The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to require alternative plans after Lowe Development earlier this year eliminated a 232-suite hotel from the $65-million office and retail complex that it had planned to build on eight acres of municipal land east of the city’s Jungleland project.

The council voted to give Lowe six months to produce several alternatives for the commercial development. Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, a longtime opponent of the project, opposed the decision.

“I see this as a fresh start,” Mayor Robert E. Lewis said.

The council’s action dissolves an existing agreement requiring Lowe to build the 215,000-square-foot hotel and a retail building in the first phase of the commercial project.

Lowe officials said their hotel financing package fell apart late last year after a Japanese investor requested the return of $17.7 million that it had committed to the project two years ago.

Without the capital, Lowe was unable to persuade other lenders to issue a loan, company officials said.

Zeanah said she opposed Lowe’s continuing partnership with the city because she is leery of the company’s ability to produce reliable financial backers.

“I am concerned that they’re having financial problems,” Zeanah said.

Ted McGonagle, a Lowe vice president and project manager, denied that Lowe will have trouble getting financing. He said the company is talking to two other investors, whom he refused to name.

He blamed the elimination of the hotel on the poor economy, which dried up hotel financing nationwide just as Lowe was about to build. The company is still committed to finishing the project, he said.

“We’re going back to the drawing board to figure out how to arrange the project so that it can make economic sense for the city,” he said.

The council’s decision will probably result in delays of a year or more in construction and a loss of rent for that period, McGonagle said.

Under the existing agreement, the city would have received at least $225,000 in rent a year for the retail portion of the development.

If the hotel had been built, it would have generated bed taxes and ground rent based on 2% of the hotel’s gross revenue, he said.

Zeanah, a longtime opponent of the Jungleland project, has suggested that the city consider using the property as a park, an art museum or as a site for a community sports center.

However, some city officials say the city cannot afford to let the land remain undeveloped.

Two years ago, the city paid nearly $21 million for the 23-acre former wild-animal park at the corner of Conejo School Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

One of the original reasons for placing a hotel, offices and stores at the site was to generate bed taxes and lease revenues for the city. That has not changed, city officials said.

“Prudence demands that we get the biggest bang for our buck for the city,” Councilman Alex Fiore said. “We deserve and should have a return on the city’s investment.”

Because of those priorities, the alternatives are unlikely to be vastly different than Lowe’s original proposal, said city Administrative Services Manager Edward Johnduff.

“Our options are not to leave it as a park,” Johnduff said. “It may be that we talk about a hotel again, but maybe not as big a hotel.”

Tuesday night’s decision does not affect the city’s plans to build a civic center at Jungleland just west of the Lowe development. The council will vote on the alternative plans for the retail complex when they are submitted later this year.

At the same meeting, the City Council awarded a $3.4-million bid to Maya Steel of Gardena to construct the steel foundation for its new City Hall and performing arts complex.