Glendale Sets Stage for $100-Million Face-Lift
Signaling a commitment to revamp the city’s identity and economy, Glendale officials are expected to set the stage this week for the largest downtown development in 15 years, the $100-million Town Center.
Emerging as the front-runner for the massive project last week was Donahue Schriber, the Orange County firm that built and still operates the adjacent Glendale Galleria.
The Town Center would span more than four blocks of prime real estate in the heart of downtown with stores, entertainment venues, offices, a hotel and a public hall and plaza. It would be the first major project outlined in the city’s newly adopted Greater Downtown Strategic Plan to be built.
“This will create a new and exciting downtown,” said Jeanne Armstrong, the city’s director of development services. “Not just because it will bring in new retailers, but by including amenities like parks and open space that our residents want and will use.”
“Projects of this type and magnitude can take five to six years before they open, so we’re looking at 2001 or 2002 at the earliest for completion,” Armstrong said. “We’re anxious to get started now, because in the meantime we are losing retailers to other communities where projects are moving forward.”
The City Council is expected today to approve a 90-day exclusive negotiating period with the company. A selection committee last week recommended Donahue over two competitors.
A basic development agreement will be the objective, but it could take more than a year to create actual development plans and determine the type and amount of public subsidies involved.
As part of the Strategic Plan, city officials have proposed spending about $64 million in the Town Center area over the next 15 years, mostly for improvements to the Central Library and the adult recreation center, but also for construction of a live theater, an art gallery, a public meeting hall and park areas that will be created to give the area a “village” feel.
Officials interviewed last week say they want to keep public investment to a minimum, but they acknowledge that could be difficult given the size of the project. It is the largest single development since work on the Galleria began in the 1970s.
Councilman Larry Zarian said the city recently invested $14.2 million in subsidies in the Glendale Marketplace, a $30-million retail project now under construction nearby on Brand Boulevard. He said he is now concerned that “we don’t get out of control” in pledging funds to an even larger project.
“We subsidized that project more than we had ever done before, and I felt that was going too far,” Zarian said. “Whoever ultimately develops [the Town Center], the question on our minds should be, what are they asking us for, and can we really support it?”
Since the mid-1980s, the Glendale Redevelopment Agency has spent about $14.5 million buying property and now owns nearly all parcels in the roughly 12-acre area, bounded by Central Avenue to the east, Louise Street to the west, Colorado Street to the south and Harvard Street and the Glendale Galleria to the north.
City officials want the land returned to tax rolls as part of the deal, although they say it is premature to say whether they would give or sell the land to the developers. No subsidies, such as sales tax rebates or money for parking construction, have been discussed yet, they say.
“It’s impossible to speculate what the city’s involvement will be in this project,” said Pat Donahue, vice president of Donahue Schriber. “Until we know the size and scope and magnitude of this, I don’t think there is anybody who can say whether it can be done with or without public assistance.”
Donahue said the next step is for the city and developer to agree on a “mutually acceptable project”--one that is economically feasible and fulfills the city’s desire to create a community-oriented downtown area, rather than just another large mall.
Over the next few months, the developer will study the viability of a business hotel and office buildings, as the city has proposed, he said.
But both parties agree that the Town Center should be an “entertainment-oriented” retail area that would include live theater, night clubs, restaurants and other night-life activities, with retail stores and boutiques housed in one- and two-story buildings rather than “big-box” enclosures.
In addition, the street pattern in the area is expected to be revamped to create pedestrian walkways and give the area an open-air atmosphere, Armstrong said.
Councilwoman Mary Ann Plumley, chair of the redevelopment agency, said the city also will encourage Donahue Schriber to replace the existing Mervyn’s department store at Brand Boulevard and Broadway, which looks like “a fortress,” with a new atrium-style entrance to the Galleria that would bridge the huge, enclosed mall to the Town Center.
Donahue Schriber was recommended by city staff over Vestar Development Co. of Arizona, a major developer that is building an 800,000-square-foot shopping center with warehouse-style discount stores in Burbank. Regent Properties, developers of Glendale Marketplace, was disqualified because it proposed building only part of the project.
The city has reserved its right to negotiate with Vestar if it cannot reach a development agreement with Donahue.
Appointees to a six-member selection committee that interviewed the developers said they chose Donahue Schriber because of its success with the Galleria, plus its experience in developing Fashion Island, an open-air mall with 200 shops in Newport Beach.
“It was very close. I felt that any of the three developers was well qualified and would do a good job,” said Brian Ellis, a board member of the Northwest Glendale Homeowners Assn., and an appointee to the selection committee.
“The bottom line I guess is that [Donahue Schriber] are like local boys. They don’t live here, but they’ve been in the community a long time and they own property here, and they certainly are the ones who will preserve the crown jewel of the Galleria.”
