CALABASAS : Center Builder to Put Office Trailer on Site

The developer of Calabasas Promenade, a proposed large-scale commercial center, expects to move a mobile office trailer to the site in the next week or so to prepare for the groundbreaking, tentatively scheduled for the end of this year.

“We’re moving forward and we’re just going to see how the chips fall into place,” Pam Azar said.

Establishing a trailer on the site will cost about $250,000 after landscaping and architectural costs are included, she said. The groundbreaking will come after she gets a financial commitment for the project.

“I’m very excited about it,” said City Councilman Marvin Lopata. “We approved it a couple of years ago because we thought it was a good project.”

The 190,000-square-foot center will include an eight-screen, 2,000-seat theater. It is near the corner of Las Virgenes and Agoura roads. Azar said Wednesday that she is negotiating with a prospective tenant, Hughes Markets Inc.

“We reached a tentative agreement in July and we are working on the details of the lease now,” she said.

Hughes would join Mann Theatres as one of two anchor tenants at the development, she said.

Azar, whose project was approved in November, 1992, is concerned that a proposed large-scale office and retail development about two miles away could become a major competitor.

“My position is that the retail is going to suffer enormously, because the area was too small to support both projects,” she said.

A vote on Calabasas Park Centre, at Calabasas Road and Parkway Calabasas, has been delayed until late September while city officials and neighborhood associations work with the developer to scale down the project’s size.