Deadline on Peirano Deal May Be Delayed

It has survived earthquakes, fire, rain and squatters, so what’s two more months?

The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, will consider extending an exclusive negotiating agreement Monday with an Oxnard developer interested in renovating the vacant 119-year-old historic Peirano grocery.

In September, the city agreed to negotiate exclusively for two months with KL Associates to refurbish the crumbling landmark.

In November, the deadline was extended until March.

The March deadline, too, has slipped by due to personnel changes at City Hall.

City staff members are now recommending that negotiations be extended one final time--until May 13. If no agreement can be reached by then, the city will try something else.

“We’ve been waiting since 1987 to do this,” Councilman Jim Friedman said. “If we have to wait another 60 days, I’m not too concerned.”

The city bought the deteriorating downtown landmark in 1987 for $150,000 but has not yet begun any restoration. The two-story building housed three generations of Peiranos, who operated the grocery store on Main Street until the mid-1980s.

But the building has been boarded up for years as the city debated what to do with it. During a fire last summer, firefighters feared that the seismically unsound building would collapse.

Retrofitting the building poses a financial challenge, and leaks in the roof have further accelerated the structure’s decay.

The discovery of a tiled 18th century Chumash lavanderia, or laundry, under the grocery in 1991 thrilled history buffs but threatens to drive restoration costs even higher.

Jim Ludwig of KL Associates has said he envisions the Peirano building as a deli and lively sidewalk cafe clustered around an outdoor fountain.