Montrose Travel agency may bolt town

Paul M. Anderson

MONTROSE -- Montrose Travel owner Joe McClure said he may decide as

early as today whether he will move his business out of Glendale.

McClure is angry that the Glendale City Council is considering a law

that would keep some businesses bigger than 5,000 square feet from

getting city permits for the next year. City officials would spend the

next year analyzing the area’s parking and zoning issues.

But the law would also kill McClure’s plans to expand Montrose Travel

on the 2300 block of Honolulu Avenue.

Glendale council members could vote on the restrictions at their

Tuesday meeting. But McClure may not wait that long to make a decision.

“We’ve received calls from many towns who want us and would be very

pleased to create 300 jobs for them,” McClure said.

Councilman Dave Weaver, who proposed the restrictions, said he wishes

Montrose Travel would move to a vacant building at 655 N. Central Ave.

“There’s plenty of space and parking for them there,” Weaver said.

“Move out and let some retail come in to the Montrose Shopping Park.”

Several of Montrose Travel’s neighbors object to the agency’s plans to

take over Faye’s Department store next door. The store is going out of

business. The expanded agency would generate 150 new employees, worsening

the parking crunch on Honolulu.

“The parking stinks up here,” said Bob Berger, owner of Montrose Bowl,

2334 Honolulu Ave. “But it’s not just because of Montrose Travel. It’s

because of the Family Festival. That Family Festival’s for the birds.”

Berger and other merchants say the Montrose Travel employees swallow

up most of the spaces in the 10-hour lot on Honolulu. That forces workers

in other small businesses to keep moving their cars to 3-hour meter spots

during the day.

Thursdays are the worst, the merchants said. That’s when the Montrose

Shopping Park Association holds its weekly Family Festival and Farmer’s

Market.

Berger estimates that he loses up to $700 in business Thursday

evenings because his customers can’t find parking.

Three senior bowling leagues signed up elsewhere because of the

parking problems, costing Berger about $15,000, he said.

Ed Tellefsen, the owner of The Reader’s Edge at 2329 1/2 Honolulu,

said his customers also complain about the parking and avoid picking up

books they ordered if they come in on Thursday.

Ken Grayson, owner of Tunetown at 2415 Honolulu and past president of

the Verdugo Chamber of Commerce, said he has “mixed emotions” about

Weaver’s proposed law. Grayson doesn’t like to see laws that restrict

businesses from growing, but the Montrose Travel expansion will

exacerbate the parking problem, he said.

Looming on the horizon is another proposal for offices to move into

the shuttered Dorsey’s Department store, Grayson said. The new owners

want to transform three of the four stories into offices, he added.

A city survey showed the area already has 200 less parking spots than

it needs. The Dorsey’s and Montrose Travel proposal would put them in the

hole another 350 spaces, Grayson said.

McClure disputes that. He argued that there’s no shortage of customer

parking, just employee parking. And he said it’s never been proven that

it’s Montrose Travel employees monopolizing the 10-hour parking spots.

There has been some talk of making one of the 10-hour lots a

double-decker garage, Grayson said. But that would cost about $4 million

and the Chamber only has $1 million in the bank.

McClure disputed that, as well. He said the double-decker lot would

cost about $2 million. McClure said the airlines have slashed his

commissions by 40% forcing him to “grow my way out of the problem.”

He said he can’t afford to wait a year for city officials to evaluate

the parking and zoning problems on Honolulu.

If Weaver’s moratorium is adopted, Montrose Travel could exercise an

option allowing the company to back out of the deal for Faye’s, McClure

said.

“The sad thing is if we do get out of the sale of the building, Mrs.

(Pat) Grant, who owns Faye’s, will be the one harmed. We were the only

bid she got for the building,” McClure said. “No one else is going to buy

a building of that size in Montrose.”

Weaver doubts that. He believes a retail shopping market would move

right in.

But not all of the Honolulu merchants are lining up to oppose Montrose

Travel’s plans.

“I have no problem with it at all,” said Greg Tomassian, the owner of

Al’s Delicatessen at 2332 Honolulu. “They bring in more customers to my

store. If they expand that’s more people for me.”