Center at Ex-GM Site on Course
Saying they are on track to open next fall, developers of a mixed-use center at the site of the long-idle General Motors plant announced Thursday they have tenants for more than half of the retail space.
Businesses will include a 4,000-seat movie theater, the second largest in the San Fernando Valley.
Nearly five months since the project was announced, developers and city officials offered an upbeat assessment of progress at the vacant lot on Van Nuys Boulevard.
“Architecturally, this is going to be one of the nicest things built in the Valley in years,” said Daniel Selleck, a partner with Selleck Properties of Woodland Hills, the firm that teamed up with Voit Cos. in February to build the project.
Selleck also sought to put to rest lingering questions about possible soil contamination an the site, citing an independent analysis showing that GM has removed all potential hazards from the property.
“As to this point, we are satisfied that the site is clean,” he said.
The assessment by Selleck and city officials signals steady progress in an area that for years symbolized the region’s economic decline.
“The GM site will send a message of recovery, if we can make it happen,” said Councilman Richard Alarcon, a key proponent of the project who represents surrounding neighborhoods.
Selleck declined to name the retail firms that have signed “letters of intent” to occupy the center. But he said that in total, tenants have been found for 200,000 square feet of the total of 380,000 square feet of retail space. In addition, he has a commitment from a firm to operate a 85,000-square-foot theater with 4,000 seats, the second-largest movie theater in the Valley.
The retail stores will include:
* a 40,000-square-foot children’s clothing and furniture store
* a 35,000-square-foot pet supply store
* a 30,000-square-foot men’s and women’s clothing store
* a 30,000-square-foot office supply outlet
* a 30,000-square-foot supermarket
* an 11,000-square-foot restaurant
* a 10,000-square-foot party store, and
* a 7,000-square-foot video store.
Selleck said he hopes to bring in an electronics outlet, a drugstore or other large retailers for the remaining 100,000 or so square feet of space.
Selleck said he expects at least half of the tenants to be open for business in time for the 1997 holiday shopping season, with the rest opening soon after. The theater is expected to open in the spring of 1998, he said.
Selleck said he does not have commitments from industrial firms to occupy the 520,000 square feet of light industrial space but has talked to several business that have shown interest.
Rocky Delgadillo, who heads Mayor Richard Riordan’s business team, said he and his group have been working to attract industrial firms to the center.
He said that the mayor’s office and the developers have worked closely to make the project work. “I think it’s been a good process,” he said.
As part of the deal, GM donated five acres of the 100-acre site for a 24,000-square-foot police substation. But Alarcon said he is still working with police officials to draft plans and identify money for the station.
Once one of the Valley’s largest employers, the GM plant closed in 1992, putting 2,600 people out of work. The new proposed development is expected to generate about 2,000 new jobs.
City officials are applying for a $4-million federal grant to extend the adjacent Arminta Street through the GM project and to pay for other traffic improvement projects in the area.
A city traffic report estimated that, once completed, the project will generate 520 new car trips per hour, putting “significant traffic impacts” on five intersections on Van Nuys and Roscoe boulevards.
GM officials have submitted a three-volume report that outlines a 21-step process to identify and dispose of contaminated soil at the site. The report concludes that after the cleanup “no areas were identified at the site during the environmental review process that would pose a significant risk to human health or the environment.”
Selleck said independent studies concur that property is ready for development.
