Glendale Council Debates Project

Several hundred residents and business owners packed Glendale City Council chambers Tuesday night to debate plans for a $264-million retail and residential complex on 15 1/2 acres in the city’s commercial center.

Council members were slated to vote on the Americana on Brand project late Tuesday evening.

Developer Rick Caruso is entangled in a bitter dispute over the project with General Growth Properties, owners of the Glendale Galleria across the street. Amy Forbes, an attorney for General Growth, said it could lose up to $4 million a year because of lost street access to the Galleria.

On Tuesday night, Forbes submitted a formal protest. Under Glendale law, that triggered a requirement that the project have unanimous council approval in order to proceed.

If approved, the proposed Americana on Brand project is scheduled to open in January 2006. It would include a two-acre park, 100 condominiums, 238 rental units, five restaurants and 50 retail stores in an outdoor setting.

Philip Lanzafame, Glendale’s assistant director of development services, said the city projected a net benefit of $6.7 million over the next 30 years. But Forbes said the city used the most optimistic projections and might stand to lose millions.

Caruso, developer of The Grove next to Farmers Market in Los Angeles, has filed an antitrust suit against General Growth and was close to scrapping the project last month because of the obstacles.

Since then, the Glendale News Press has been flooded with letters, most of them in support of the project, and Caruso said his office had been inundated with phone calls in favor of the development. He said it inspired him and City Council members to push again for the project, in which he has invested $5 million in the last four years.