GLENDALE : Agency to Focus on Upscale Expansion

Construction and expansion of trendy retail shopping centers in downtown Glendale will be given top priority in the Glendale Redevelopment Agency’s upcoming fiscal year, officials said Monday.

More than half of the agency’s proposed $4.3-million 1995-96 budget is to be set aside for two retail developments in the heart of the city.

A loan of about $2 million is expected to be approved to enable a developer to expand the Mann 8 Cinemas, build a new restaurant and make other additions to The Exchange, and at least $700,000 is being committed to help get the Glendale Marketplace development up and rolling.

The latter figure could increase to several million dollars sometime during the fiscal year if a development agreement is signed between the agency and Regent/Tolkin, the development firm that hopes to build the new mall in the two-block area southeast of Brand Boulevard and Broadway, said Jeanne Armstrong, the city’s redevelopment director.

“We are not going to allocate a substantial amount of money for that project until we have an agreement and we know exactly the amount of land subsidies and write-downs that are going to be required,” Armstrong said. “When the project is a reality, then we’ll appropriate the funds.”

Armstrong said the agency and Regent/Tolkin expect to sign an agreement later this year.

In a best-case scenario, officials say the new mall, expected to include a new multiplex cinema and larger retail “power center” stores, could open by 1997.

Other expenditures in the proposed 1995-96 agency budget include $600,000 for economic development programs, $500,000 for an environmental review and other work on the city’s Downtown Strategic Plan, and $500,000 for the city’s share of the cost to rebuild quake-damaged parking structures at the Glendale Galleria.