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City Seeks New Partner for Redevelopment Project

The city's Community Redevelopment Commission is jump-starting the plan to develop three blocks in downtown South Pasadena, over a year after the previous developer lost financial backing.

Nearly a year after dissolving an agreement with Torrance-based developer Decoma, the city's Community Redevelopment Commission (CRC) will soon solicit a new developer to take over South Pasadena's stalled downtown revitalization project.

The city will send out a request for qualifications (RFQ)  to potential project partners in early November, according to Ernest Arnold of the Community Redevelopment Commission. 

The estimated $50 million revitalization project would completely transform a three block stretch of South Pasadena, from Hope Street in the north to El Centro Street in the south and between Mound Street in the west to Fair Oaks Avenue in the east. The project includes the redevelopment of five buildings, as well as two key parcels at 1503 and 1507 El Centro Street. The city purchased these additional parcels after the termination of the agreement with the developer. 

The development would bring a host of pedestrian paths, gathering spaces and a town plaza to the three block area. Plans include retail, restaurant, office, and banking space, as well as a 5,100 square-foot bowling alley, up to 60 residential units and 427 parking spaces. 

South Pasadena's downtown redevelopment project stalled in June 2009, when the developer Decoma announced it would no longer be able to finance the project after partner Shamrock Holdings pulled out and took $9 million in equity with them. 

Since the project has already been completely designed and entitled, the commission is on the lookout for a developer that can come in and get right down to work on the city's plans, Arnold said. 

"There's value in having all the necessary entitlements in place," Arnold said. "It should make for a much quicker process, and for developers time is money." 

Planning Commissioner Stephen Felice said the revitalization project, with its pedestrian trails and commercial gathering spaces, was tailor-made for a community-oriented city like South Pasadena. 

"Right now, this town has [few places] for neighbors to congregate in public," Felice said. "There's Garfield Park, but there's no commercial space. There's no place to go to have a coffee while the kids play," he added. "That's something this community would really embrace. You only have to go to the soccer fields on Saturday morning to see [how much community means to people in South Pasadena]."

Chamber of Commerce CEO Scott Feldmann said he hopes the project "brings a heart to downtown."

He added that the successful completion of the downtown project would be a major step in saving the city's historic, but rundown Rialto Theater. 

"Our hope is that the caliber of partner that is needed to bring back the Rialto would see what we're doing with the downtown project and want to partner with us," he said. 

The community has not been universal in its support of the redevelopment plan, though, as evidenced by an effort from concerned citizens in the summer of 2008 to delay the project.

In 2008, shortly after the approval of an environmental study for the project, a group of citizens petitioned for a ballot measure to ask voters to approve or deny the city's effort to clear up ambiguity relating to the plan's residential development. City planner John Mayer said the city wanted to clear up confusion on language in the city's redevelopment plan document, drafted in 1974.

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The group that initiated the ballot measure, led by Robert Conte of the South Pasadena Cultural Heritage Commission and David Beadle, formerly of the South Pasadena Natural Resources and Environmental Commission, encouraged voters to reject the city's effort to clear up the confusing language regarding residential developments, in hopes that it would stall the entire project. 

In an official argument against the measure that was placed on the 2008 ballot, the group argued that planned condos would turn into "empty apartments" and the project would "ruin [South Pasadena's downtown]." 

At the time, Conte also expressed concerns over Decoma's ability to pay for the project and the city's willingness to shoulder a portion of the financial burden by paying for an Environmental Impact Report. The city has already committed about $1.3 million for studies related to the project.

Voters came out in favor of the development in November 2008, however the group's effort succeeded in stalling the project until the real estate market collapsed and the developer lost its financial backing, Mayer said.

Felice said that the petition effort, as well as three lawsuits filed aimed at slowing the development, essentially killed Decoma's involvement in the project.

"There's an old saying in real estate, if you don't like a project, delay, delay, delay," Felice said. 

Conte said he's still opposed to the project and sees the Community Redevelopment Commission's hopes of what it could do the city as too optimistic. 

"It's too big and there's really no benefit for the city or it's citizens," he said. "It just creates more congestion downtown and our schools are already overcrowded."

Conte added that there was also no need for new commercial development in the city when empty store fronts occupy the downtown area. 

According to Felice, any developer's willingness to take on the downtown redevelopment project depends on how profitable they view this venture. He also said, in determining whether to take on a project, developers will gauge the community's ability to delay the project.

Conte said the city would likely also have to put itself in a compromised position to attract a developer. 

"There's no way a developer is going to step in unless the city opens its pocketbook," he said.

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Arnold said he could not predict if the development would be stalled by any future community efforts, but believed that voters' show of support for the project at the poll's in 2008 indicated how residents really felt. 

"Anybody has the right to file a lawsuit or a petition and we have no control over that," Arnold said. "What we would hope is that given the project's history, they would be dismissed more rapidly." 

Conte said he didn't foresee another organized effort opposing the project in the future, but he said he would "speak out against it when we need to." 

He added that the 2008 vote was close, 55 percent to 45 percent, which pointed to a strong contingent in the community that didn't support the project. 

Felice said that he hoped the project would not be slowed by any more such roadblocks. 

"This revitalization is something I think the people of the city would support and benefit from. I can feel it in my bones," he said. "It's the missing piece to making South Pasadena a complete community."

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