Council OKs $2-Million Loan for Panorama City Mall

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to loan $2 million in federal funds to a partnership that plans to buy the site of a vacant department store in Panorama City and build a 95,000-square-foot shopping center.

At the request of Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents Panorama City, the council voted to loan Panorama Towne Center Inc., a limited partnership, the funds to buy 6.5 acres at the site of a former Robinsons department store on Van Nuys Boulevard near Parthenia Street.

The money would come from the $60 million that the city requested last year from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department. Half of the money is designated for housing programs and half for economic development programs.

The Panorama Towne Center project would include a 53,000-square-foot Food-4-Less grocery store as the anchor of the mall, city officials said. The entire project would cost $9.7 million, officials said.

Alarcon praised the council’s decision, noting that Panorama City has suffered from a dramatic economic slump.

“Panorama City is a community that’s been in decline for the last several years,” he said. “It’s anticipated that the completion of this development will help jump-start other commercial activities in the area.”

The Robinsons’ store closed seven years ago, but the area took a bigger hit in 1992 when the General Motors plant closed its doors in Panorama City, idling 2,600 workers.

City officials said the interest rate on the loan to the partnership will be about 1.5% higher than the interest HUD will charge the city.

But city officials who reviewed the partnership credentials said the group includes three couples who have successfully developed or managed other projects in the Valley and elsewhere in the city.

The couples are Harry and Lillian Grossman, Areih and Felice Greenbaum, and Laurence and Maureen Eisenberg, according to an aide to Alarcon.

According to records with the secretary of state, the partnership’s president is Maureen Eisenberg. Felice Greenbaum is the registered agent.

A representative of Panorama Towne Center Inc. could not be reached for comment.