Mall Clears Hurdle but May Yet Fall : Business: Appeals court approves plans for proposed Marina Place retail center, but the legal fight has dragged on for so long that developers might not build it.
A state appeals court has removed the last legal obstacle to construction of a major shopping mall near one of the Westside’s busiest intersections, but the developers’ victory is shaping up as a hollow one.
Hamstrung by a weak economy, Marina Place, a proposed $169-million retail mecca, remains an 18-acre undeveloped patch of dirt near Lincoln and Washington boulevards--four years after Culver City approved the project.
Though cheered by a state Court of Appeal ruling last week, representatives of Prudential Insurance Co. of America, which owns the land, and its partner, shopping center developer Melvin Simon & Associates of Indianapolis, said they do not know what they intend to do with the property. The parcel is at Culver City’s western tip and is bordered on three sides by Los Angeles.
“Nothing is certain at this point,” Marianne Lowenthal, project manager for Prudential, said this week.
Meanwhile, Marina Place opponents happily shrugged off the court’s ruling, contending that their suit served its purpose by delaying the project to the point where it is no longer economically viable.
“The objective of the lawsuit was met in that it held up this terrible behemoth,” said Terry Conner, co-founder of Coastal Area Support Team, a local group that sued to stop the mall. “Even though we lost, it doesn’t matter.”
From its inception, controversy has dogged Marina Place. While Culver City officials salivated at the prospect of a swanky, revenue-producing mall, residents and politicians in Los Angeles saw it differently.
Fearing that Los Angeles would be burdened with most of the mall’s traffic but frozen out of the financial benefits, the city joined the Venice Town Council in a 1988 lawsuit to stop Marina Place. That suit charged that Culver City did not meet California Environmental Quality Act standards when it approved one phase of the development.
The Coastal Area Support Team, a coalition of neighborhood groups and businesses concerned with development issues along the Lincoln Boulevard corridor, also sued, contending that Culver City failed to adequately study the mall’s impact on the state’s coastal zone.
In last week’s ruling, the appeals court determined that the group failed to challenge certain elements of the mall--including the conditional-use permit granted by Culver City--within a 90-day statute of limitations. Various other challenges, the court ruled, were filed within a required 120-day deadline but essentially repeated the Los Angeles/Venice Town Council lawsuit, which lost on appeal last year.
But while both actions were ultimately defeated, they bought time for the parties who filed them. The department stores that were supposed to anchor the development, Nordstrom and Bullock’s, ran into economic trouble. Last year, R. H. Macy & Co., Bullock’s parent company, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. The Seattle-based Nordstrom chain has also been struggling with slow sales during the recession.
And so, where backers once envisioned a 150-store Mediterranean-style complex linked by an atrium, rumors now abound that a large warehouse-type store will be built on the site, which was once home to a helicopter factory.
“We have been approached and Simon has been approached about various uses, including Price Club,” Culver City Councilman Steve Gourley said. “What sticks in my mind is big-box retail.”
Those who fought Marina Place say a relatively low-density business such as a Price Club would be tolerable.
But even that potential resolution comes with complications. As a condition of its development agreement with Melvin Simon, Culver City demanded a high-quality department store. Failure of the developer to produce one could throw the entire agreement in disarray.
“Unless Simon and Prudential are willing to go forward (with the original plan), it’s a brand new ballgame,” Gourley said. “I look forward to people coming in with some creative propositions.”
He might be waiting a long time.
Billie Scott, a Melvin Simon spokeswoman, said the company plans to evaluate economic conditions and alter the project accordingly.
“We don’t expect any immediate announcements,” she said.
Neither she nor Prudential’s Lowenthal would rule out building the mall as planned, and Culver City Mayor Mike Balkman theorized that now would be a good time to build it because construction costs are down.
But Conner, who works as a field representative for state Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), was so confident of the project’s demise that he couldn’t resist one final shot at its backers.
“If Prudential has a conscience, they’ll reimburse our $50,000 in legal fees because we saved them $150 million,” he said.
