Developer Seeks Major Expansion of Popular Center.

The owners of Century City Shopping Center are working out details of an expansion plan that would add nearly 72,000 square feet of store space to the Westside mall and move Gelson's supermarket from Century Park West to Little Santa Monica Boulevard.

And while community groups are pleased with the grocer's relocation, concerns about parking are keeping them from getting behind the expansion.

Mike Levin, executive vice president of Urban Retail Properties Co., the Chicago developer that bought the mall in 1999, said the expansion has been planned since Urban Retail took ownership. And the company is hoping to avoid upsetting nearby residents in the process.

"We're long-term owners of this property," Levin said. "We're here to stay, and we want to be a good neighbor."

In the past, being a good neighbor has meant offering free parking to discourage mall patrons from parking on neighborhood streets. According to a conditional-use permit, which, among other things, allows Gelson's to sell liquor, the mall's owner must provide three hours of parking free of charge. Levin said the expansion plans that Urban Retail has submitted to the city, which involve re-approval of the CUP, ask for permission to start charging $1 for the first three hours of parking.

Levin said the parking fee would have no effect on where patrons choose to park.

"Beverly Center does that," Levin said. "Because of the upscale customer at Century City, we don't think there will be any opposition to that."

Maybe not from patrons, but there will be opposition from the local community. Diane Witz, president of homeowners group Tract No. 7260 Association Inc., said neighbors expect a bad parking situation would worsen if the mall starts charging for the first three hours of parking.

"Our homeowners' group is opposed to this because the overflow from the parking structure comes directly into our neighborhood," Witz said. "For them to go back on one of the founding blocks of construction is unconscionable."

Witz said mall employees already park on Century City streets because they can avoid the charges that kick in after three hours in the garage. The mall's neighbors "suffer through" permit parking arrangements because of that, Witz said.

Residents of the community -- bounded by Pico, Santa Monica, Beverly Glen boulevards and Fox Hills Drive -- and their visitors routinely get tickets from city parking monitors in the time it takes to walk into a home and return with a visitors permit, Witz said. Parking woes are "very flippantly dismissed" by Urban Retail, she said.

Levin said the proposed parking fee is necessary to help finance improvements that will be made in the garage. The parking area is targeted to get improved lighting, among other things, Levin said.

Considering that a huge reconstruction of Santa Monica Boulevard in the area is scheduled to begin this year and the 750,000-squarefoot Constellation Place office tower is already under construction, Witz said the community is bracing for maddening traffic woes.

On the plus side, Witz said, the community, is pleased with the plan to relocate Gelson's. By moving the grocer from the back of the property to the front, Urban Retail would be able to move store deliveries to an existing underground loading area.

"We think moving Gelson's to the front is a win-win because the neighbors have complained in the past about deliveries and noise," Levin said.

Once the relocated Gelson's is built, its present store would be torn down to make way for a new retail component for the shopping center. Two buildings totaling as much as 68,000 rentable square feet of space would be leased to a variety of tenants. Urban Retail officials predicted they would find one large tenant to occupy as much as 40,000 square feet and fill in the remaining space with smaller tenants.

Levin declined to disclose the company's proposed budget for the project. He also wouldn't talk about potential new tenants.

Larry Friedman, senior planner at the city's Planning Department, said the expansion plans call for demolition of 66,250 square feet and construction of 137,950 square feet. That includes the 40,140-square-foot Gelson's and the two new retail buildings of 48,905 square feet each.

Levin said the developer further accommodated the community when it decided against granting AMC Theatre's request to expand. Upgrading the theater would have meant a taller building and increased traffic.

The community is happy not to have an expanded movie complex, Witz said. She added, however, that Levin had told the homeowners that the decision was one of economics and that a bigger theater complex would not attract the type of patron that would benefit the other retailers in the mall.