7 YEARS LATER - NOTHIN' VALLEY STILL WAITS FOR ITS NEW CIVIC CENTER.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Seven years after the Northridge Earthquake, ground has yet to be broken on a new municipal building at the Van Nuys Civic Center, scheduled to open this summer.

Officials say the delay is the result of difficulties in financing the $34 million building. But others say it reflects the sort of neglect that's at the heart of the Valley secession movement.

``They had no trouble at all coming up with $299 million to renovate City Hall downtown,'' said Richard Close, chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE. ``I think we're going to see more and more of these delays of investing in the Valley the closer we get'' to the citywide vote on Valley secession, currently slated for the November 2002 ballot.

When the council gave final approval to the Valley Civic Center project in July 1999, city officials estimated that the building would be finished around August 2001 - that's about when ground will finally be broken.

But the long-awaited project at the southeast corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street has hit snags, leaving city departments that formerly operated out of the badly damaged 1928 Van Nuys City Hall building scattered in rented offices across the Valley at a cost of more than $350,000 annually.

The process began in 1996, when then-Councilman Marvin Braude proposed building an all-inclusive, city services center that would include retail space. Its proponents said it would serve as a cornerstone for revitalizing the slumping Van Nuys Boulevard corridor.

The city chose not to issue bonds to pay for the center after a financial report suggested that the city had reached its debt capacity.

The developer, Voit Cos., was hired to build, finance and own the center, even though the structure will eventually become public property after a lease period is up.

Under the contract, the city will have the option of purchasing the center once it's built at a maximum cost of $34 million upon completion, or paying through a 30-year ``rent to buy'' lease-back at roughly $3.8 million annually.

That cost was expected to be offset in part by income from the retail space and the savings in existing private leases.

But it wasn't until last week that financing was finally secured, according to Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who won election to Braude's seat when he retired in 1997.

Miscikowski said in a statement that the project was delayed because ``lending institutions for months have been uncertain how to assess its viability and any associated financial risk prior to completing the necessary financing arrangements.''

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association, said he believes Miscikowski is doing her best to revitalize the Van Nuys Boulevard corridor, but waiting for the new center has been frustrating for residents.

``Something should have happened there soon after the earthquake,'' he said. ``The (Van Nuys) Civic Center got lost in the priority of rebuilding City Hall downtown.''

Costs for renovating City Hall downtown have ballooned from an original estimate of $100 million to nearly $300 million.

Financing for the Valley project was complicated because banks have had little experience financing a public building through a private developer, according to Larry Kosmont, president of Kosmont & Associates, a Los Angeles-based real estate firm specializing in public-private ventures.

And although Kosmont agreed that the project's uniqueness made delays inevitable, he said a two-year delay was ``stretching it.''

A lease agreement and loan contracts were signed April 30, and ground is expected to be broken within three months, according to project manager Claire Bartels, a mayoral aide and former Miscikowski deputy.

Bartels said the wait was worthwhile because the deal gives the city a maximum price of $34 million with budget overruns being the responsibility of the developer.

``They have every incentive in the world to keep their cost down,'' she said. ``We believe it will be less costly this way.''

Scaled down from an original plan of 200,000 square feet to 142,000 square feet, the building will include office space for an estimated 524 full-time city employees, she said, with 300 underground and surface-level parking spaces.

The Mediterranean-style building of two and four stories with wide arches will be built around a plaza with artwork depicting the history and culture of the Valley.

There will also be 9,500 square feet of retail space.

Next door on Sylvan Street, the city plans to completely restore the historic municipal building - popularly known as Van Nuys City Hall - once the new building is complete, Bartels said.

The old building hasn't been fully occupied since the 1994 earthquake. Although its future use hasn't yet been determined, some possibilities include housing the Van Nuys library or additional city offices.

Other revitalization efforts under way in the area include two separate Targeted Neighborhood Initiative projects to spruce up businesses, creation of a business improvement district along ``auto row'' on Van Nuys Boulevard, and the formation of a historic protection overlay zone.