Inaction on Planned Mall Is Bemoaned

Property owners eager for progress on a stalled downtown shopping center project have urged the Glendale Redevelopment Agency to begin looking for a new developer.

The Tolkin Group has been negotiating with owners in the two-block area southeast of Brand Boulevard and Broadway for nearly two years, trying to assemble land for the proposed Glendale Marketplace, a center with retail stores, restaurants and a movie theater.

Although several prominent retail stores have reportedly expressed interest in the project, the developer has had difficulty financing land purchases and has required several extensions to its exclusive development agreement with the city.

It also has not come close to obtaining purchase options on 60% of the land for the project not already owned by the city, as it had pledged, officials said.

“This developer’s tied up that block for two years,” said Warren Meyer, who owns one of 12 properties in the project area. “We all want to see this project go through, but I am for a limit on the amount of time.”

On Tuesday, the redevelopment agency granted the developer another two-week extension to prepare a report on a change in the development plans that, according to the firm, will make the project more viable.

Steve Meixner, an executive who has worked on the project since its inception, acknowledged that it has been “a difficult 18 months.” He said in the past two months, however, the developer has acquired a financial partner to help buy the land and has revised the project from three stories to two to make financing easier.

The developers have also, at long last, obtained a purchase option on one of the properties in the area, he said.

Developers said they have also dropped plans for a large public plaza on the site, a cost many retailers did not want to bear. They said they will present revised plans to the redevelopment agency in the coming weeks for a project that would be anchored by large retail stores and have an “entertainment feel,” with restaurants and storefronts along Brand Boulevard and Maryland Avenue.

In a best-case scenario it could be open for business in early 1997, they said.

John Hedlund, another property owner, said the current developer has invested much effort in the project and “stands the best chance” of making it work. “That area is blighted and needs to be improved as quickly as possible,” Hedlund said.