Building Plans Set for Library, Plaza

Groundbreaking for a combined library and shopping plaza on a one-acre lot at Maclay Avenue and 3rd Street will take place this fall, with construction to be completed by spring.

Developer Severyn I. Aszkenazy of Pueblo Contracting Services in San Fernando said planners originally hoped to start construction July 1, but negotiations with potential tenants over architectural details slowed the project.

Pueblo Contracting proposed the $2.5-million project and won approval from the city of San Fernando last year.

The city Redevelopment Agency has since approved a $700,000 loan at 4% interest to Pueblo Contracting to help fund the project, said Saul Gomez, administrative services manager for the city.

Gomez said the loan carries “forgiveness provisions,” which means that after an as-yet undetermined period of time, either the interest or full loan might not have to be repaid.

Such an arrangement could hinge on the library remaining a tenant for a given number of years or the structure maintaining full occupancy, points the parties involved must still work out, Gomez said.

The county library at Library Street and Maclay Avenue a few blocks away will move and fill 6,500 square feet of the new site, Gomez said. The adjoining shopping area, including a food court, will occupy 9,000 square feet, he said.

The new plaza--on the former site of a dry cleaning business and an auto service center destroyed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake--will feature a bookstore, coffeehouse and photocopy store, among other shops, according to the plan.