Demolition to Clear Way for Marketplace

Demolition is set to begin Monday for a much-anticipated retail and entertainment center project downtown featuring a major electronics store and a multiplex theater, officials said Tuesday.

The $30-million project, known as the Glendale Marketplace, is considered a major step in the city’s ongoing efforts to spark the rebirth of the downtown area. It is the city’s largest retail development since the Glendale Galleria opened 20 years ago and includes an unusually high investment of public funds.

“We are creating a downtown urban village with high-quality tenants,” said Douglas Brown, a partner at Beverly Hills-based Regent Properties.

The City Council approved the project in June despite concerns about the city’s role in helping the project work. Public funds for the project include an estimated $11 million to build a nine-level, 1,100-space parking garage, and up to $4.2 million in land subsidies and other costs.

City officials said the investment will be worthwhile if it leads to the healthy transformation of a blighted 1 1/2-block area along Brand Boulevard, Broadway, Maryland Avenue and Harvard Street. The Marketplace, expected to open in early 1998, is seen as a complement to other improvements made in recent years, officials said.

The site is next to a recently opened Borders bookstore and sits just south of the Exchange open-air mall.

Brown said anchor tenants who recently signed long-term leases for the planned 185,000-square-foot center include Wow, a superstore that combines merchandise from the Good Guys and Tower Records; Mann Theatres, which will house a four-screen complex with 500-seat auditoriums; and Linens ‘n’ Things, a home-furnishings store. A lease agreement is expected with a fourth anchor tenant within several weeks, he said.

The center will also feature restaurants and shops and outdoor patio seating, all of which will be pedestrian-oriented, Brown said.

The project, which is being developed by Regent and the Tolkin Group, calls for two two-story buildings separated by a walkway from Maryland Avenue to Brand Boulevard. A bridge will connect the city’s parking structure to the center’s second level.

Developers said demolition at the site is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks.

“There will be no explosives used in the demolition,” said Kelly Peart, vice president for construction for Regent. “The building will be carefully disassembled since we plan to recycle the building’s bricks.”

Glendale Councilman Larry Zarian, who voted in favor of the project despite reservations about the public subsidy, said Tuesday that he hopes the massive development stays on schedule.

“That block has been hurting for a new project for a long time,” he said.