Valley Plaza Developer Backed
A developer has proposed a $140-million expansion and refurbishment of Valley Plaza Shopping Center in North Hollywood, one of the San Fernando Valley’s oldest outdoor shopping malls, with 828,000 square feet of new stores, theaters and office buildings.
The plan by J.h Snyder Co. is aimed at reviving the 47-acre shopping center, which sustained heavy damage in the Northridge quake and has had trouble keeping many of its storefronts filled.
“It would be a total redevelopment of an area that needs a lot of work,” said Jerry Snyder, president of the development firm.
The company was selected by the Community Redevelopment Agency staff in a report released Tuesday. The agency board is scheduled to meet Thursday to vote on the recommendation and consider entering into exclusive negotiations with the firm to develop the mall.
Snyder proposed leaving the popular Sears, Roebuck & Co. store and historic Wells Fargo Bank clock tower and expanding an existing Ralphs supermarket, but demolishing some of the other, older buildings before constructing new stores and offices. In the end, the shopping center would include 1.04-million square feet of stores, offices, theaters and restaurants.
The plaza, located west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and east of the Hollywood Freeway, includes about 125 businesses in roughly 800,000 square feet of buildings. It was completed in the 1940s by developer Bob Symonds and was a centerpiece of Valley commerce through the 1970s.
Snyder proposed a pedestrian-friendly outdoor shopping center with stylized new buildings. He said he has hired Jerde Partnership International Inc., the architectural firm that worked on Universal CityWalk and San Diego’s Horton Plaza, to design the project.
The Valley Plaza proposal includes a multiscreen movie theater, bookstores, cafes and restaurants, large plazas and fountains. The proposal also includes replacing a 27-year-old office building occupied by Century National Insurance Co. with a 100,000-square-foot headquarters.
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When complete, the project would provide 1,121 new jobs, for a total of 2,228 on-site jobs, according to redevelopment agency administrator Jerry Scharlin.
“This project is a major step in reviving both Valley Plaza and the Laurel Canyon commercial corridor,” Scharlin said. “Valley Plaza, once the jewel of the San Fernando Valley, is barely functioning.”
Scharlin recommended in a report released Tuesday that Snyder be empowered to negotiate exclusively with the redevelopment agency on a new agreement, after his proposal was judged the best of those submitted.
The board will consider whether to seek the power to condemn properties in the area, if necessary.
Snyder said he has agreements to buy 20% of the properties and is in talks to buy a majority of the parcels both north and south of Victory Boulevard.
Redevelopment officials said getting the 37 owners of parcels in the plaza to agree to the project will be a challenge.
Tenants said they have been provided with few details.
Rodney Payne, an owner of From the Ground Up Boutique, which has sold African jewelry, hair products and clothing for four years on Bellingham Avenue, had questions about the effect on his business.
“They’re supposed to offer relocation fees, but what’s that?” he asked. “What about the good will and the customers’ trust that you built up over the years?”
Redevelopment might interrupt the flow of repeat customers to Col’s Flower and Party Shop, built up over the last three years by co-owner Marina Vasquez.
She said the store, which displays signs in English and Spanish, has provided party supplies for nearly 30 years under different owners.
“If we move, we’ll have to start all over again,” she said.
The landlord declined to offer Vasquez a new long-term lease, when hers expired last year, leaving the store with only a month-to-month rent agreement, she said.
Boosted property values after the renovations might drive smaller businesses out of the area, owners said.
“If the rent is high, we probably wouldn’t be able to afford it,” said Milad Haroun, whose family has owned the 2 Jacks Newsstand and cigarette shop next to Payne’s boutique for five years. “There’s not much we can do.”
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A number of plaza merchants said they were resigned to whatever changes come their way.
“I don’t worry about things I can’t control. I stay relatively happy that way,” said John Lindsay, who sells comic books and baseball cards at the Rookies and All Stars Sports Gallery.
Snyder said some redevelopment agency subsidies may be needed, but it is too early to say in what amount.
A representative of the developer briefed a group of property owners on the project Tuesday. Afterward, a spokesman for the owners in attendance backed the proposal.
“We are very supportive of the Snyder proposal,” said Chuck LeRoy, a property manager for Anchor Management. “If it doesn’t happen, this area is going to deteriorate even more.”
LeRoy represents a group of owners that includes the Symonds family, which owns nine acres of Valley Plaza.
About 30 of the 125 storefronts in the center are vacant, including large buildings vacated by J.C. Penney Co. and Wherehouse, the music store, after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
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Snyder said the Penney building is an important part of the project, but competing developer Ira Smedra said he is also pursuing a possible redevelopment of that one property, which could further complicate the Snyder project.
City Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes Valley Plaza, supports the concept of redeveloping the shopping center, according to Tom Henry, an aide.
“We are very happy that someone of Jerry Snyder’s reputation is stepping forward, because he has a great track record,” Henry said.
Snyder’s $1-billion Los Angeles company has built 41,000 homes, 4-million square feet of offices and 1.3-million square feet of retail development. The company’s recent projects include the Granada Hills Town Center and the Water Garden in Santa Monica.
“We have been working on this for some time. Now, we are finally seeing the flower bloom.”
