GALLERIA DEVELOPER TOP CONTENDER FOR TOWN CENTER.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

An Orange County company is the Glendale Redevelopment Agency staff's top pick to build a project called Town Center, an open-air pedestrian retail area that city officials envision as the new centerpiece of downtown Glendale.

Donahue Schriber, which developed both phases of the massive Glendale Galleria, beat out three other contenders for the nod from GRA staff.

On Tuesday, the members of the Glendale City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency board, will decide whether they agree with the staff's recommendation to give the company the exclusive right to negotiate to develop Town Center.

``They are a known entity,'' said GRA director Jeanne Armstrong. ``The Glendale Galleria is very valuable. We wouldn't want to do anything next to it that would diminish it as a regional mall.''

Donahue Schriber officials could not be reached for comment.

The Town Center is a major component of the city's Downtown Strategic Plan, which the Glendale City Council approved last year.

The GRA owns about 50 percent of the 12-acre site just southeast of the Galleria where the 500,000-square-foot Town Center is proposed.

Unlike the Galleria, which is a large indoor mall, the Town Center would have a mix of large and small stores facing an outdoor, pedestrian-oriented area. It would be reminiscent of Fashion Island in Newport Beach or Paseo Nuevo in Santa Barbara, Armstrong said.

Town Center is the second of two major retail developments the agency is advancing to increase business activity near Brand Boulevard and Broadway, the heart of downtown.

Regent Properties of Santa Monica is building a 200,000-square-foot project called the Glendale Marketplace, just east of the Town Center site. Along with a Mann's Theater, stores scheduled to move into the Glendale Marketplace in the summer of 1998 include Linens & Things and a Wow electronics store, Armstrong said.

After a major sweep of new development in the late 1970s and 1980s, there was a dramatic slowdown in office and retail development in the early 1990s. The new developments mark a resurgence in downtown Glendale.

The Town Center site is south of the Galleria, bordered by Brand Boulevard to the east, Colorado Boulevard to the south and Central Avenue to the west.

Donahue Schriber has been interested in the site for years.

But in late 1995 a major competitor, Phoenix-based Vestar Development, entered the fray and proposed a $125 million, 700,000-square-foot project.

Armstrong said Vestar came in a close second to Donahue Schriber. The GRA board has the option of disagreeing with the staff and could call for another round of evaluation of the competitors, she said. Regent Properties and the DiPeitro family, which owns the local Masonic temple, also submitted proposals, but neither was on the same scale as Donahue Schriber and Vestar, Armstrong said.

In the end, Donahue Schriber had more experience in retail development in urban centers, while Vestar's experience in retail development has mostly been in suburban areas with large anchor stores, such as department stores, Armstrong said.

Vestar officials could not be reached for comment.

Vestar is developing a project in Glendale called the Fashion Center in a building that once housed a Robinson's department store just west of the intersection of Glendale and Wilson avenues. That site is slated to include a Vons Pavillions Grocery Store, Best Buy Electronics and a Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Vestar is also active in Burbank, where its is closing a deal to buy a 103-acre site from Lockheed Martin Corp. where the company wants to build an 800,000-square-foot retail development.