Santa Anita Bets on New Fun Center : Recreation: Dwindling race crowds prompt plans to build a family-style entertainment-retail complex in the huge parking lot.

For six decades, the crowds have come to Santa Anita Park in Arcadia to watch magnificent horses at full gallop beneath the midday sun.

But with the stands no longer as full as before, executives at this Southland landmark are proposing a $100-million entertainment complex in the track’s huge parking lot to lure a new type of customer.

Santa Anita’s owners, The Santa Anita Companies, envision a village about the size of Disneyland’s Main Street featuring the nation’s biggest movie theater (25 screens), restaurants, a 5,000-seat auditorium/theater, food outlets, bookstores, a virtual reality gaming center and possibly an ice rink.

The complex would be situated southeast of the track’s main grandstand, not far from Santa Anita Fashion Park, and take up about a tenth of the 320-acre property, Santa Anita officials said. The company owns 50% of the fashion park mall.

“We’re in the process of developing plans for an entertainment-retail complex almost contiguous to the racetrack,” said Christopher T. Stirling, president of Santa Anita Realty Enterprises Inc. “It will have a village feel to it and provide family entertainment throughout the day.”

The company has been looking for ways to boost revenue and utilize its largely unused 145-acre parking lot since racetrack attendance began declining seven years ago. The decline has been attributed in part to competition from the state lottery and satellite off-track wagering.

“We’ve got to look at what else we can do with this property,” said Clifford C. Goodrich, Santa Anita’s vice president. “A family-oriented entertainment complex will bring people here and make money for our shareholders and Arcadia taxpayers.”

Although the publicly traded Santa Anita Companies is worth more than $300 million, its returns to investors have dipped in recent years. The firm consists of Santa Anita Operating Co. and Santa Anita Realty Enterprises, one of the nation’s largest real estate investment trusts.

Santa Anita officials are betting on their new venture to turn their finances around and hope to finalize contracts with tenants in the next two months. They expect to submit plans for the project, which would be built in phases, to the city in the first quarter of 1995. Construction could begin in 1996 and the first phase would then open the next year.

The village, designed to attract a younger, more family-oriented crowd than the racetrack, would be separate from the horse-racing operation and cater to the region’s residents rather than tourists.

“We’re looking for more repeat business, not a CityWalk,” said Sherwood C. Chillingworth, Santa Anita’s vice chairman, referring to the Universal Studios development. Chillingworth, himself a horse owner, said he hopes to have the new venture’s sports bar over the track’s saddling paddock so a new generation of race-goers will be generated.

Chillingworth said the new venture will be a bonus for Arcadia by generating new taxes, and that the auditorium will provide a cultural center for public meetings and Broadway shows. “Arcadia is our partner,” he said.

Council members welcomed the announcement.

“I think it’s exciting to see (that) Santa Anita, which is the largest supporter and employer in this city, has a future, “ said Councilman Dennis A. Lojeski.

“This project, like any other, will have to go through the proper zoning changes . . . but the bottom line is this track paid for our City Hall, police station, high school and our hospital,” he said, referring to the tax income Santa Anita generates.

But Santa Anita’s neighbors, who previously fought plans for a concert hall and expressed concerns about the city allowing outdoor concerts, are not greeting the project with open arms. And they fear the city will be won over by the project because Santa Anita’s companies provide a big chunk of Arcadia’s municipal revenue. Last year alone, the track, the mall and Santa Anita’s medical building generated $3.4 million in taxes for the city.

“I’m shocked. No one has ever given any indications they were thinking of something like this,” said Lee Merritt, who lives near the track.

Merritt, a 17-year neighbor of the facility, said Santa Anita officials were telling the city as recently as June that they had no plans for a big project. “Their integrity leaves a lot to be desired,” he said.

Santa Anita’s Goodrich dismisses such opposition. “There will always be a no-growth group. Some people will oppose whatever we do,” Goodrich said.

But company officials are aware the tide could turn against their project if opponents grow in number. In 1975, the shopping mall barely gained approval after 17 hearings and a ballot vote by Arcadia residents.

To avoid a similar backlash, Santa Anita officials have formed a committee of 17 community leaders. Many of the track’s neighbors say the committee is weighted in favor of the project’s proponents, and that those prominent in debates over the facility in the past have been left out.

But Mike Lamb, an Arcadia school board member who heads the community advisory committee that meets once a month, said he likes the direction the track is headed.

“They seem willing not only to pursue their ideas but to consider ours,” he said. “Most of the discussion has been very positive.”