FULLERTON : Burger Restaurant OKd After Debate
The City Council on Tuesday hotly debated a $510,000 subsidy to the developer of a hamburger restaurant on a vacant lot at a prominent downtown intersection.
The construction of a Knollwood restaurant and a parking lot at the southeast corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Harbor Boulevard was approved 3 to 2, with council members Chris Norby and Julie Sa voting against it.
“We want something there that makes a statement,” Norby said. “What we’re left with is a hamburger joint.”
The Redevelopment Agency began discussion of a project for the corner in 1991 and has already given $168,000 to developer Harbor & Commonwealth Partners to build a commercial complex, according to Gary A. Chalupsky, agency director.
But the site has remained vacant, and the developer and the agency have blamed each other for the failure to proceed with construction.
“The choice is to do a project or BeComE involved in substantial, prolonged litigation,” Chalupsky told the council.
The restaurant will serve a variety of food. Patrons will order and pay at the counter and then eat at tables, she said. Developer James W. Ray called it “midway between the classic fast-food and a sit-down dinner place.”
The agency will pay about $3,000 to the developer for the first seven months after completion of the restaurant, and about $1,900 monthly for the next seven years.
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