SIMI VALLEY : City Won’t Buy 80 Acres Zoned for Mall
In a closed meeting, the Simi Valley City Council decided not to buy 80 acres of hillside property that has been zoned to accommodate a long-planned a regional mall.
The council reached the decision this week after considering a proposal from three landowners offering to sell 80 acres of undeveloped land near the Radisson Hotel for an undisclosed amount.
In December, Gary Seaton of Mitchell Realtors, representing the same landowners, offered to sell the city the land for about $8.8 million--about the same square-foot price the city paid a month earlier for 32 acres nearby.
But City Manager Lin Koester rejected the offer, saying the city had achieved its goal of owning a key piece of mall land with the 32-acre purchase.
In mid-December the city officials agreed to pay $3.5 million for the 32-acre parcel, hoping they could use it to help lure a mall developer to the city.
Under the city plan, a developer of the regional mall could lease or purchase the 80 acres that are up for sale.
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