Agency to Deal Exclusively With Townhome Developer

The city’s Redevelopment Agency decided Monday to negotiate exclusively with an Orange County developer proposing to build 26 townhomes on Garden and Santa Clara streets near the Patagonia headquarters.

The agency, comprising City Council members, also agreed to entertain proposals from the Olson Co. of Seal Beach on one other parcel at the corner of Thompson Boulevard and Figueroa Street.

The second site contains the Meta Motel, a Greyhound bus station, two homes and a parking lot.

The five owners of that 1 1/4-acre property are being asked to submit redevelopment proposals of their own.

The Olson proposals, officials say, represent the type of private investment envisioned when the city agreed to pour $20 million into reviving the struggling downtown business corridor.

“There’s such a great dynamic to the downtown area,” said Todd Olson, director of acquisitions for Olson Co., which builds high-density housing in older urban areas under redevelopment.

By a separate 5-2 vote, however, the Redevelopment Agency delayed Olson’s request for the city to consider a proposal to build a third Victorian-style townhouse project on a separate half-acre parcel, also on the corner of Figueroa and Thompson.

Going against a staff recommendation, the majority opted to extend by 60 days an exclusive negotiating agreement with a developer considering the same parcel for a $1.9-million, 14,000-square-foot office building.

Commissioners Jim Friedman and Sandy Smith voted against extending the nine months of negotiations, through which the developer, F & A Realty Advisors Inc., has asked that $70,000 in required city traffic fees be waived or suspended for several years.

Friedman argued the vote sent the wrong message to all potential downtown developers: that despite already dumping $20 million into the downtown, the city is still willing to subsidize private investors.

Olson Co. officials say they are not looking for any city subsidy.

Their proposal is significant in that the city has long sought a developer willing to build homes in the downtown core, an area that officials say needs more housing to support local businesses.