Glendale Community College, city officials explore sale of Glendale Civic Auditorium
The Glendale Civic Auditorium is located across the street from the Glendale Community College at 1401 N. Verdugo Road. Both college and city officials have been exploring the idea of GCC purchasing the auditorium.
Glendale Community College officials were scheduled recently to discuss in closed session the possibility of buying the nearby Glendale Civic Auditorium, according to the college’s board of trustees agenda.
The auditorium is located across the street from the college at 1401 N. Verdugo Road, and officials had planned to meet with Real Property Negotiators for the discussion.
Reached by phone this week, Glendale Community College trustee President Tony Tartaglia said college officials could not comment any further on the closed-session discussion.
Mayor Ara Najarian said during a phone interview on Thursday that both college and city officials have been exploring the idea. Now, city officials will see if college officials make a worthwhile offer, he said.
“We’re just waiting to see what they end up giving us,” he said. “If the college was going to make an offer, would it be worth it for us to let [it] go?”
The meeting took place last week, about a year and a half after accounting professor Michael Scott encouraged college officials to explore acquiring the auditorium.
Scott was nearing the end his term as the college’s academic senate president when, during a June 2014 board of trustees meeting, he told college officials they “need to hold discussions with the city of Glendale to request they either sell or donate the civic auditorium.”
Scott said he envisioned the 25,000-square-foot building housing a student union and state-of-the-art labs and classrooms.
Glendale Community College is located on about 100 acres, with the majority of the land already developed.
Its location in the hillsides of Glendale presents a challenge for expansion, according to the college’s 2015 facilities master plan.
“Options for new building locations are limited on the Verdugo Campus and future development must make the most of remaining opportunities,” according to the plan. “The extreme topographic elevation change across the campus … limits the buildable area on the existing site.”
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
