Ground Broken on Marketplace Project
After several false starts, groundbreaking ceremonies took place Monday for the Glendale Marketplace, a $50-million, city-subsidized shopping and theater complex at the southeast corner of Brand Boulevard and Broadway.
Scheduled for completion in 1998, the two-story, 160,000-square-foot complex will be built by Regent Properties of Beverly Hills and Tolkin Group of Pasadena, which took over the project after the city’s negotiations with other developers fell through. The developers will receive a $16-million subsidy from the Glendale Redevelopment Agency.
“The Marketplace has not only been something long needed in the area, it will also tie several blocks in our downtown community together,” said Glendale Mayor Sheldon Baker.
The complex is “the first significant project that has broken ground . . . in the last 10 years” in Glendale, said Hamo Rostamian, a retail specialist with CB Commercial in Glendale, referring to the post-recession slump in retail development.
Despite reservations about the project’s cost, the city agreed to fund construction of the Marketplace in June of last year because the block on which it will be built has long been considered a visual blight.
“We’ve been trying to redevelop this area for a number of years,” said Kirk Pelser, project manager for the Glendale Redevelopment Agency. “It has continued a downward spiral to obsolescence.”
The redevelopment agency provided nearly $3 million to the developers in land acquisitions subsidies and loans and relocated the previous tenants on the block, including a coin and stamp shop and the Church of Scientology, Pelser said.
Another $13 million in redevelopment agency funds will go toward building a parking structure.
Anchor tenants in the Marketplace will include Mann Theatres, Linens & Things, Old Navy Clothing Co. and Wow, a store that combines the merchandise of The Good Guys electronics supplies and Tower Records.
During the groundbreaking, clusters of people gathered around an architect’s model of the Marketplace showing several elevated walkways, palm tree landscaping, open-air patios, small shops and restaurants.
Developers have considered two-story complexes like the Marketplace more risky than the typical suburban shopping center surrounded by acres of parking lots.
But acceptance of what Rostamian calls “urban vertical concepts,” or multistory shopping centers, is growing among developers and lenders, he said.
Rostamian believes that Glendale Marketplace will be “a very promising development” with a good chance for success because of its location on one of the city’s busiest intersections. He also approves of the center’s strategic combination of small shops and larger warehouse-type stores, together with four stadium-style Mann theaters.
Wells Fargo Bank is the lender on the project, said Douglas Brown, a partner in Regent Properties.
