LOAN COULD HELP BAKERY GET ROLLING PORTO'S AWAITS CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL ON FUNDING FOR NEW SHOP IN BURBANK.Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer BURBANK - A popular Glendale bakery cafe could open a location at Hollywood Way and Magnolia Boulevard if the Burbank City Council approves a proposed $790,000 loan for the company today. The 14,000-square-foot property that Porto's Bakery could take over has been vacant since 1998, when a Thrifty PayLess Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Store chains in the western United States. The combined company was formed when Los Angeles-based TCH Corporation, the parent company of drugstore moved out. Officials have labored over how the prominent property, which is on the southwest corner of two major thoroughfares, should be developed. ``It's something that the community has been asking for going back to when Thrifty's was first vacant. This is the kind of use that the neighborhood wanted to see there,'' said City Councilwoman Stacey Murphy. City officials believe Porto's needs the $790,000 loan because it would take about $1.4 million in improvements to make the property ready for a bakery. Windows need to be added to the building, and it needs a new roof, plumbing, flooring and lighting. ``It's a big challenge for a bakery to relocate there,'' said Jack Lynch, senior redevelopment project manager. The proposed loan is a standard offering to help businesses develop properties in parts of the city designated as redevelopment areas. In 2002, the Redevelopment Agency gave a $675,000 loan to Tucker Investment Group to bring in an Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters, Inc. NASDAQ: URBN owns and operates three retail clothing brands: Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People. The first store opened in 1970 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, focusing on "funky" fashion and household products. store at 330 N. San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. Blvd. The loan was forgivable if Urban Outfitters stayed open for 10 years, but Tucker would have had to make payments if the store's sales exceeded $4 million a year. This year Tucker sought to refinance Refinance 1. When a business or person revises their payment schedule for repaying debt. 2. Replacing an older loan with a new loan offering better terms. Notes: When a business refinances they typically extend the maturity date. his property with a private banker, and as part of that arrangement the company paid the Redevelopment Agency $300,000 and the rest of the loan was waived, Lynch said. Porto's loan would also be forgiven after 10 years. But if after three years Porto's gross sales Gross Sales A measure of overall sales that isn't adjusted for customer discounts or returns, calculated simply by adding all sales invoices, and not including operating expenses, cost of goods sold, payment of taxes, or any other charge. are more than $5.5 million, it would pay the city 50 percent of sales over that amount, up to the annual loan payment cap. Lynch said the loan is needed, even if the property is not in a redevelopment zone, because the former Thrifty's site is blighted blight n. 1. a. Any of numerous plant diseases resulting in sudden conspicuous wilting and dying of affected parts, especially young, growing tissues. b. . ``And we now have the opportunity to not only remove that blight blight, general term for any sudden and severe plant disease or for the agent that causes it. The term is now applied chiefly to diseases caused by bacteria (e.g., bean blights and fire blight of fruit trees), viruses (e.g., soybean bud blight), fungi (e.g. but put (the property) to the kind of use that we think would be perfect for Magnolia Park,'' Lynch said. Porto's has a 20,000-square-foot facility at 315 N. Brand Blvd., and has been in Glendale since 1978. It plans to keep the Glendale location open if it opens a bakery in Magnolia Park. ``Even though we are in the downtown Glendale, we like to be more in the neighborhood instead of the downtown,'' said Raul Porto, 44, who runs the bakery with his wife and two sisters. Porto's would be buying the property from Ken Fisher Ken Fisher can refer to:
n. Labor hired and paid by the day. day laborer n. Noun 1. . Alex Dobuzinskis, (818) 546-3304 alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com IF YOU GO The City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave. CAPTION(S): box Box: IF YOU GO (see text) |
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