GLENDALE : Sears Wins Support for Homelife Store

Sears, Roebuck & Co. has won preliminary approval to build a 32,400-square-foot furniture store in Glendale--the only store the company says it will open this year in California.

The Glendale City Council, acting as the city Redevelopment Agency, gave preliminary approval Tuesday to the plan for a two-story Homelife store next to an existing Sears store on North Central Avenue.

The agency voted unanimously in favor of the concept of the store, calling it an economic boost to the downtown.

“This is great,” Mayor Larry Zarian said. “I think it’s the best thing that’s happened in the last six months.”

Tuesday’s favorable nod is only the first of five stages the project must undergo before facing final approval from the Redevelopment Agency, officials said. Sears officials will now have to obtain city permits and appear before various city commissions, such as zoning, transportation and parking.

“We’re opening 32 stores (nationwide) in 1994,” Sears spokesman Bob McHenry said. “The only one in California is in Glendale.”

Sears has been operating Homelife stores in California since 1989. Sixteen are housed within Sears department stores and four are free-standing buildings, McHenry said.

Glendale’s Homelife would become the first Sears-owned free-standing store in Los Angeles County, McHenry said. Four others have opened in California--in Montclair, Moreno Valley, Rohnert Park in Northern California and San Marcos near Oceanside.

No cost estimate has been set for the project, which is expected to be completed before Thanksgiving, said Les Cooley, with Irvine-based Architects Pacifica Ltd., hired by Chicago-based Sears for the project.

Redevelopment Director Jeanne Armstrong said the only concerns raised by other city departments involve parking spaces and sidewalk availability. The architect wants 16 of 65 parking stalls designated for compact vehicles, but city parking codes allow for only 14 for this type of project, Cooley said.

Sears officials said they chose Glendale because of available property, which Burbank and Pasadena stores did not have.

“We’ve got the land and the opportunity to build here,” Glendale Sears’ store Manager Ron Stein said. “It was centrally located for Burbank and Pasadena and the Glendale store.”