SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Sale of Depot Is Back on Track

The 100-year-old Capistrano Depot has been sold by the city to a group of South County investors for $860,000, pending final approval by San Juan Capistrano’s redevelopment agency.

The historic 12,000-square-foot brick depot along the Amtrak-Metrolink railroad tracks includes a restaurant, bar, dance floor, outdoor patio, 99 parking spaces and rooms made up of old railroad cars. It is in escrow to an investment group called Manna Station Inc. headed by Roger Crawford of Laguna Hills, said Cassandra Walker, a city spokeswoman.

This is Crawford’s second attempt to buy the depot. His earlier $920,000 deal with the city derailed in September because of differences over financing, Walker said.

Crawford now has a different group of investors--who the city has declined to name--and a lower price, Walker said. The terms of the new agreement call for Crawford to put down a $25,000 cash deposit and for the city to finance a short-term loan toward an undisclosed portion of the sale price, Walker said.

The sale will not be official until a vote by the City Council, acting as the community redevelopment agency, on Nov. 7. It could close escrow within 30 days after the vote, Walker said.

The redevelopment agency paid $1.1 million for the depot in 1986, one of several downtown historical buildings the city bought in the 1980s to save from destruction.

The lower sale price reflects a downturn in South County commercial real estate market in recent years, Walker said.

“It’s a unique property but a really tough real estate market,” Walker said.

Despite the downturn, the time has come for the city to get out of the real estate business, City Councilman David M. Swerdlin said. “Those properties the redevelopment agency no longer finds necessary to achieve its goals are being divested,” said Swerdlin, the owner of a local photography business. “The [redevelopment] board of directors feel we should not be in competition with our own downtown businesses.”

In recent years, the city also has sold the building that houses the Swallows Inn and a commercial block across Ortega Highway from Mission San Juan Capistrano, which is being remodeled into a mall called the Mission Promenade.