SOUTH GATE : Soil Contamination Stalls Plan for Mall

Plans to build a 14- to 16-screen cinema complex and retail space near the city’s main shopping center have hit a snag.

Officials have discovered that the land on which the $25-million to $30-million project is to be built is contaminated with lead, pushing back the project by at least a year.

Ruben Lopez, the city’s deputy director of redevelopment, said officials hope to begin cleanup this summer. He added that negotiations to acquire the 21-acre parcel from ARCO and World Oil Corp. have halted until the land is rehabilitated. If all goes well, construction could begin in the fall of 1996 and be completed by early 1997.

The proposed project will expand South Gate’s Towne Center shopping mall by 250,000 square feet, which would make it the largest shopping center in the region outside of Downey’s Stonewood Mall. The expansion would provide the city $500,000 in additional tax revenues.

An environmental impact report commissioned by the city in January discovered soil contamination that would be considered a public health hazard. Three World Oil storage tanks--one of which must be emptied--sit on the property. Both World Oil and ARCO are responsible for cleaning up the property.

The city’s redevelopment agency recently entered into negotiations with Southland Consulting Corp. to build a 45,000-square-foot multiscreen theater. Another 10,000 square feet would accommodate retail shops.

The city also is negotiating with an unspecified national department store to occupy 195,000 square feet of retail space on the same property at Firestone Boulevard and Garfield Avenue.

South Gate is working with Regent Properties for the development of the department store, which is estimated to create 400 jobs in the area.

Officials of the San Diego-based CinemaStar Luxury Theaters, which is the city’s first choice to build the theater in South Gate, said it would take under 90 days to construct such a complex once it receives approval.

“The best thing about this is that people who live here won’t have to drive out of South Gate and spend dollars elsewhere,” said Mayor Albert Robles, who interviewed a CinemaStar official last week on his local cable show “City Issues.” Residents won’t have to go to Long Beach, Lakewood or Cerritos to see first-run movies, Robles said.

The City Council “wanted to bring a major chain theater to the city, and the one that showed most promise and commitment to our community was this one,” he said.

The movie theater company, which changed its name from Nickelodeon Theaters last week to its present name, competes with established movie theater chains such as AMC, Edwards, Mann and Pacific by featuring plush airline-style seats and high-technology sound.

The city also is negotiating with CinemaStar to build a four-screen theater on Tweedy Boulevard to show foreign movies and art films.