City Considers Plan for Victorian-Style Building

City Council members agreed Monday night to negotiate exclusively with a developer who wants to build a Victorian-style office building on a vacant lot in downtown Ventura.

Acting as the Redevelopment Agency, the council voted 5 to 0 to negotiate only with Ventura-based developer F & A Realty Advisors Inc., to sell and develop the property at the northwest corner of Figueroa Street and Thompson Boulevard.

Councilmen Gary Tuttle and Ray Di Guilio were absent.

The city bought the property in 1989 for $318,000, officials said.

But it has gone unused since then, as city officials unsuccessfully sought a developer to undertake a project that would fit into the scale and ambience of the neighborhood.

Since 1990 the city has sent out several hundred requests for proposals to develop the property, but no one responded. Then, three years ago, the city tried to sell the property. But there were still no takers, said director of community services Everett Millais. F & A approached the city earlier this year.

Today the property, situated to the south of another Victorian-style office building, is overgrown and vacant. Honeysuckle grows through the chain-link fence, and trash litters the perimeter.

F & A Realty proposes to build an office building of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet on the site.

The developers plan to use half the space for their own offices and lease out the rest, Richardson said.

It will probably be a two-story Victorian, to match the building next door, city redevelopment manager Pat Richardson said. The city will not sell the property unless it approves of the project plan.

F & A officials said they will submit project costs and a financing plan by Nov. 30. They have put down a $10,000 deposit to initiate negotiations with the city.

Richardson said he hopes the proposal augurs well for the future of Ventura’s historic core.

“People are feeling confident about downtown Ventura,” he said. “I think this unsolicited proposal is just another indication that the development economy is bouncing back.”