Entertainment Hub Is Supported by Panel : Thousand Oaks: A redevelopment subcommittee envisions shops, a restaurant and possibly a virtual reality establishment.

The weed-filled lot next to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza could turn into a pedestrian mall with shops, a giant movie theater and a Wolfgang Puck restaurant under a proposal being recommended by a Redevelopment Agency subcommittee.

In a report issued Tuesday, the subcommittee recommended that the agency choose Kilroy Industries, an El Segundo-based developer, to create the proposed entertainment center.

City Council members, sitting as the redevelopment board, discussed the recommendation Tuesday night.

Mayor Pro Tem Andrew Fox said he was impressed with the quality of Kilroy’s past work and its interest in the Thousand Oaks project.

“The thing I liked with Kilroy was their aggressiveness,” he said. “They seemed to want to do the job well and have an understanding of working with government.”

Fox said he hoped the board would approve the recommendation so that development of the center, intended to complement the Civic Arts Plaza and create an entertainment hub for the area, could move ahead. The faster the city acts, Fox said, the better the chances of attracting the kind of business tenants the city wants.

“Time is critical on this,” he said.

Even with the board’s approval, the selection of Kilroy will not be final. The city and the company must still discuss issues ranging from project cost to the center’s square footage, City Atty. Mark Sellers said. If the talks go well, the city could enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Kilroy in September, according to the report.

If that agreement cannot be reached, the committee recommends opening discussions with a consortium of companies led by Atlanta-based Cousins Properties.

Although the city has some clear ideas for what shape the project should take, no specific design exists for the center, which could occupy between 130,000 and 180,000 square feet. Current plans call for a multiscreen movie theater to serve as the project’s anchor, attracting customers who would then frequent the center’s specialty shops and restaurants.

Hugh Greenup, Kilroy’s senior vice president of development and marketing, said earlier this month that his company has letters of interest from several restaurants, including the Wolfgang Puck Cafe, and several theater operators.

Tuesday night, Greenup said his firm is looking forward to working with the city.

According to the report, the center could even house a virtual reality establishment that would provide “full-body sensory thrills and fantasy.”

The committee considered two other companies for the project--Cousins and Sterling Development of La Jolla.

Fox said committee members toured projects built by all three before settling on Kilroy. Each developer seemed up to the task, Fox said.

But Kilroy, which is building a similar project along the Ventura Freeway in Calabasas, appeared to be the best qualified to realize the city’s vision for an entertainment center, he said.