4 Developers Submit North Campus Plans
The four finalist companies in the competition for rights to develop Cal State Northridge’s little-used North Campus submitted revised proposals Thursday, mostly focusing on shopping center-indoor arena combinations, amid signs that the developers are offering less than the school once hoped.
In the second round of proposals, the university received plans from two developers featuring shopping center and arena combinations, while a third proposed a sports and recreation complex, to be combined with a fourth developer’s retail-only project.
Some of the latest proposals, however, suggest the campus is not likely to get all it desires, at least not without paying extra. Although most of the contenders have agreed to relocate CSUN’s aging football stadium, the university’s wish for a developer-funded indoor arena has proven more elusive.
Under the university’s concept, the selected developer would make annual payments to CSUN, or provide some other equivalent value, as part of a long-term lease on the 65-acre site. Whether the selected developer would also sweeten the pot by paying for an indoor arena remains a question.
Details of the proposals remained sketchy Thursday because officials of the North Campus/University Park Development Corporation, the CSUN auxiliary overseeing the project, declined to make the proposals public.
But developers and university officials provided the following summaries:
* Brentwood-based Lowe Enterprises proposed about a 20-acre shopping complex, a cinema and theater building, a relocated football stadium and 23 acres for possible future office use. Lowe suggested a 6,000- to 10,000-seat indoor arena and enlarged stadium, but only if CSUN were to help fund them.
* Woodland Hills-based Voit Cos., which built much of Warner Center, proposed a 33.5-acre shopping center, a 6,000-seat indoor arena, a 160-room suites hotel, a $6.5-million relocated football stadium and a 20,000-square-foot conference facility--reportedly with no direct payments by CSUN.
* Woodland Hills promoter Mark Steele and his partner, the Mariani Financial Co., proposed a 9,000-seat indoor arena, a relocated football stadium, an indoor volleyball complex and other smaller facilities. But in exchange, Steele wants the property at no cost and CSUN to help pay for the project.
* Newport Beach-based Hopkins Real Estate Group, along with its partner Cousins Market Centers of Atlanta, proposed only a 20-acre, 230,000-square foot shopping center.
Representatives of Hopkins and Steele said their two projects now have been designed to fit together on the property.
All the proposed shopping centers would be on the northern frontage of the property along Devonshire Street. And all proposals to relocate the campus’ old football stadium would place it toward the southern edge of the property along Lassen Street, officials said.
But there have been some changes from earlier proposals. Steele’s latest plan defers his originally proposed 1,250-seat performing arts center and backs away from doubling the size of the football stadium to 12,000 seats, unless the university makes other concessions.
In the original round of submissions last fall, only Steele proposed a sports and recreation complex, which CSUN officials liked for its content but not its finances. In this round, Lowe and Voit broadened their original shopping center-based projects to include some similar elements.
Campus officials plan to keep the proposals confidential through next next week while privately reviewing them. But the university has scheduled two days of campus meetings, March 11 and 12, for the developers to publicly present their latest plans.
CSUN’s North Campus group is then scheduled at its March 25 public meeting to recommend beginning formal negotiations with one or more developers. The proposals chosen then go for approval to the Cal State University system board of trustees in mid-May.
