Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : City Begins Demolition of Abandoned Retail Center : Development: In an effort to clean up the eyesore, Palmdale officials had declared the oldest downtown shopping area unsafe.

The city of Palmdale has resorted to demolition to clean up the burned-out remains of six storefronts in the city’s oldest downtown shopping center, once the center of the area’s retail district and now a mostly abandoned eyesore.

A city-hired contractor Tuesday began tearing down the fire-damaged portions of Palmdale Plaza after city officials declared it unsafe. It will take about two weeks, or more if significant amounts of asbestos is found, to raze the shops at 707-725 E. Ave. Q-6, near Sierra Highway and Palmdale Boulevard.

Three suspected arson fires over the past 14 months have gutted portions of the vintage 1950s center, which the city of Palmdale for more than a year has been negotiating to buy. The city already owns the only occupied part of the dilapidated Palmdale Plaza, an old toy store that it converted into a community activity center. Under city building codes, the city can tear down structures deemed unsafe.

Senior Code Enforcement Officer Mike Morrisey said that since the tenants have left Palmdale Plaza, vandals have removed everything of any value including the copper wiring; taggers have left graffiti, and homeless people have taken up residence.

When bulldozers began tearing down the stores’ walls Tuesday, workers discovered blankets, beer cans and other evidence that some had found a use for the deserted center.

Mayor Jim Ledford said the city had been trying unsuccessfully for months to get the Palmdale Plaza owners to keep the center secure. The hiring of an on-site security guard and boarding of windows proved inadequate.

“We felt there needed to be more,” Ledford said. “We’ve realized we had to get in and clean that up.”

Nearby business owners and residents have for some time complained about the blight. Edwar Maida, manager of a liquor store across the street from Palmdale Plaza, said the decaying center has hurt his business.

“After dark, everyone’s scared to come over,” he said. “If they start cleaning it up . . . it will grow my business again.”

By declaring the burned-out portions of the center unsafe, the city may be reimbursed for the $28,000 that it spends on the demolition, Ledford said. Chatsworth-based contractor Ronald L. Smithis the prime contractor.

Reseda businessman Melvyn Starkman, owner of much of the center, did not return repeated telephone calls Tuesday. Starkman’s limited partnership, Palmdale Financial Group, last year filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Ledford, who said the city may be able to purchase the center through the bankruptcy proceedings, said that eventually everything but the activity center at Palmdale Plaza may be torn down.

For now, everything between the building that once housed a Security Pacific Bank and the structure that housed a drugstore will be demolished. The bare ground will be all that is left of the fire-damaged part of Palmdale Plaza.

“There will be a lot less blight to look at,” Morrisey said.

Craig Scott, director of the city’s building and safety department, said the city has demolished unsafe buildings in the past, although the most recent instance that he could recall was in the early 1970s.