Theater Builder Seeks More Property

Trying to capitalize on their own investment, developers of a long-awaited movie theater and shopping complex in downtown Oxnard are attempting to buy 15 more parcels in the same area.

“We have a number of offers out on properties we hope to incorporate into the International Marketplace concept,” said David White, a principal partner in the theater project and in a second partnership that hopes to transform the downtown into a bazaar of restaurants, bookstores, shops and cultural festivals.

The $15-million two-phase theater and shopping complex, on three-quarters of a square block between A and B streets and facing landmark Plaza Park, is seen as a catalyst for the broader revival of Oxnard’s historic downtown.

The City Council, after three false starts on a theater complex since 1995, enthusiastically endorsed the project in November. And in recent weeks, a White partnership called Oxnard Plaza Associates has made offers on 15 properties in a rectangular grid extending several blocks south of the theater.

“We’ve just begun doing that, and we’ve only bought one little piece of maybe a half an acre,” White said. “We’re working on it, but we’re not the only ones interested. There are other people who are starting to believe that it’s really going to happen this time.”

The parcels are all within a downtown redevelopment zone bounded by 3rd Street on the north, C Street on the west, Wooley Road on the south and the railroad tracks on the east. The 15 parcels total perhaps 10 acres, White said, in addition to the three-acre theater site.

White said his group hopes to buy some of the numerous vacant parcels the city owns in the downtown area. City officials said that was the idea when the council approved the International Marketplace three months ago.

“Our agreement requires us to work with them as it relates to city-owned property in the downtown,” said Brian Pendleton, city redevelopment manager. “They would have first option to purchase those properties.”

Indeed, the city is working closely with the developer.

“What made this deal successful where the others weren’t was their broader look at the downtown,” Pendleton said. “It’s not piecemeal. The theater is just the first phase. They brought it all together as one project and one vision for the downtown ... And they’re going to need land to do the International Marketplace.”

Unlike previous deals in which developers would have received the theater site for free, White and his partners have agreed to buy the site -- nearly one square block -- for $800,000. And they will pay the city $1 million more over time.

In exchange, the city must erect a 500-space parking garage a block from the theater at an estimated cost of $7 million. The city must also guarantee for 25 years the $1.6-million annual lease payments of movie theater operator San Carlos Cinemas, based in Sonoma County.

The other sizable city commitment to the area is the planned rehabilitation of the nearby Civic Center complex, Pendleton said.

Even without a movie theater, the downtown has begun a recovery of sorts. Over the last decade, the city has added a stylish red-brick library and a matching train-and-bus station.

The redevelopment agency has spent $10 million to move about a dozen historic houses to Heritage Square and convert them into offices. It has donated land to three condo or apartment projects with a total of 218 units. It has spent at least $2 million to spruce up streets, install new lighting and renovate Plaza Park, just across B Street from the theater site.

It is working on a project to light and landscape alleys and parking lots in preparation for the movie theater.

Slowly, private owners have also started to put money back into their properties. Vacant storefronts have reopened, often with shops oriented to the city’s largely Latino population. Several new apartment complexes have been built nearby.

And the Olson Co., a leading in-fill housing developer, is planning a condo project three blocks from the theater.

“There is some good strong interest in doing a blend of different types of housing,” Pendleton said, “and that will help create the 24-hour activity that will make the downtown successful.”

Previous theater developers have complained that the city would not spend its own money to improve surrounding properties. Indeed one project was similar in scope to White’s, but the developer eventually backed out because the city would not commit $10 million to the plan.

Los Angeles-based CIM Group came to Oxnard in 1998 with a plan for a grand new downtown covering a six-block swath of A Street.

The group had already helped rebuild downtowns in Pasadena, Santa Monica, Brea, Huntington Beach, San Diego and San Jose. The company is the largest property owner on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. It is now a big investor in Hollywood redevelopment.

City officials said they rejected CIM’s proposal because it wanted too much city property for free -- six city-owned parcels or buildings -- and a $10-million city subsidy up front.

A key to White’s success, city officials have said, is that he comes to the negotiating table with money, and his projects get completed.

White is a partner in two other large Oxnard projects: the 416-home River Ridge golf course expansion under construction in north Oxnard and the planned $750-million RiverPark project along the Ventura Freeway, the largest mixed-use development in Ventura County history.

In the downtown Oxnard venture he is a partner with, among others, Neno Spondell and Richard Devericks of Ventura Pacific Capital Co. of Camarillo, developers of small shopping centers, including ones in Moorpark and Simi Valley.

“We’re working with the city on doing an overall master plan of that area,” White said. “They have done them before. But the difference this time is that whatever plan is finally arrived at will actually be implemented.”