BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:Retirement hotel closes

Burbank Gardens Retirement Hotel will be closing its doors to its 79 tenants, citing slumping revenues.

The building, a retirement center for more than 20 years, has been sold and will undergo renovations in the coming months.

Another retirement community will move into the building on West Willow Street and offer similar amenities along with repaired, redone living and leisure spaces, co-owner Dino Clarizio said.

“It needs a lot of repairs,” Clarizio said, declining to discuss who the tenant was.

Doors will close in 59 days, Clarizio said.

Along with Burbank Gardens, the Clarizio family owns the Arcadia Health Center, Arcadia Gardens Retirement Hotel and the Shadow Hills Convalescent Hospital in Sunland.

Falling revenues forced the family to close the hotel’s doors, Clarizio said.

“It’s losing quite a bit of money every month, and with the tax bill due, it’s not really an easy situation,” Clarizio said.

For years, the Clarizio’s recently deceased father, Orlando Sr., who owned and operated Burbank Gardens, subsidized the low income of the retirement hotel with money from the family’s other businesses, Dino Clarizio said.

After Orlando Clarizio Sr.’s death in March 2006, a split of property ownership among his four children stopped the flow of funds from the other facilities shared with Burbank Gardens, Dino Clarizio said. The remaining owners of the Burbank retirement hotel — Dino Clarizio and his two brothers — were faced with handing down a notice to vacate.

Tenants were given a 30-day notice to move out of the retirement hotel on Jan. 15, but due to tenant requests, Dino Clarizio extended the notice to 60 days, starting Wednesday.

Stan Lynch, whose 91-year-old aunt lives at Burbank Gardens, thought the original 30-day notice was a bit brisk and was worried about his aunt finding lodging within the month.

Lynch and his cousin have made arrangements for his aunt to move into Belmont Village in Burbank, one of a few retirement communities and adult nursing facilities in the city.

Burbank Community Development Director Sue Georgino received calls last week from family members of tenants about the 30-day notice to vacate.

“We are going to do everything we can to help the individuals who have been given the notice to move,” Georgino said.