DEVELOPER MISSES CITY DEADLINE VALLEY PROJECT STILL IN LIMBO.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

After tying up North Hollywood land targeted for redevelopment for two years, developer Allen Radford's exclusive agreement to negotiate with the city formally ended Wednesday without a concrete proposal.

But Community Redevelopment Agency officials left open for a week the possibility of reviving the deal with Radford, who produced a new partner at the last minute to try to salvage control of the stalled project.

The uncertainty means further delays for North Hollywood residents eager to see their community's economy sparked by new construction and jobs. ``It makes development more uncertain and the community vulnerable to lose that land to competing interests,'' said North Hollywood attorney Glenn Hoiby. ``It raises questions why the agency didn't give it to someone prepared to go forward, rather than to someone who couldn't, or wouldn't.''

Radford, president of JARCO in Santa Monica, won the deal in March 1999 on promises to the CRA of multiple sound stages, garden offices, high-rise office towers, commercial shops, stores, restaurants and a multiplex theater on about 30 acres, despite owning or holding the option to only six acres.

At Wednesday's meeting, Radford said he still didn't have a final ``owner participation agreement,'' breaking a deadline set by the City Council in August when it agreed to extend the exclusive talks.

That agreement was supposed to finalize a scaled-down project on 23 acres - without either the sound stages or movie complex. But Radford said he missed the deadline because he switched from partner LCOR to J.h. Snyder Co. late Tuesday.

Jerome Snyder, whose company would take over Radford's property interests and develop the site, said he hadn't worked out a specific plan yet. In general it would include a mix of residential, office and retail buildings.

``I have some ideas in the back of my head,'' Snyder said after the meeting. ``I've got to do some land planning.'' Surprised, commissioners agreed to delay until Feb. 7 their decision whether to proceed with Snyder, or to start over with a new request for proposals.

Commission Chairwoman Peggy Moore said the agency will have to be convinced of the ``depth, strength and commitment'' of the new team and whatever development is proposed before the agency agrees to join the endeavor. The CRA has the power to condemn property, and to otherwise help private developers move ahead with major projects.

Radford said he switched to Snyder because he never could ``get his arms'' around the LCOR deal, and that it didn't guarantee the development would go forward.

LCOR officials, meanwhile, said they were cut out of the deal after offering all they could to Radford financially, and after agreeing a new North Hollywood High School would be built on part of the property.

LCOR's Howard Samuels told commissioners that until the land is given over to someone who will actually do something with it, North Hollywood redevelopment will never move forward.

``It all comes down to who controls the land,'' Samuels said.

Snyder, a major developer in the mid-Wilshire area, said he is committed both to redevelopment and to construction of the new high school.