LOCAL TOOL STORE FACES DILEMMA LONGTIME BUSINESS MAY HAVE TO MOVE FROM GLENDALE.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

GLENDALE - For most of the 40 years they've been on West Harvard Street, the owners of Scotty's & Sons tool store have been warned that redevelopment was imminent, and they and other area businesses would have to move.

But Lydia McGhie and sons Eric and Bob Kann stayed at the same location, their store thriving and expanding as they waited for a developer to come forward.

Now, with Caruso Affiliated Holdings honing plans for a residential and retail project on a 16-acre redevelopment site encompassing Scotty's, the family is facing - and dreading - the real possibility that they might be forced to relocate.

``We live in Glendale. Our sons went to school in Glendale. I am afraid when the city asks us to move, it would mean we would have to leave Glendale,'' said Roland McGhie, who married Lydia after her husband, Scotty's founder Scotty Loudon, died in 1972.

Some 40 businesses are currently within the project area - bounded by Colorado Street, Central Avenue, Brand Boulevard and the Glendale Galleria. Caruso Affiliated Holdings, which developed the Promenade at Westlake and the Calabasas Commons, has proposed building housing, office and retail space, with a public park in the center.

The project is expected to fill a gap between the Galleria and Brand Boulevard, creating a continuous stretch of vibrant commercial development in the heart of downtown.

City officials have ambitious visions of transforming the area - now populated by myriad businesses in mostly dilapidated buildings - into a lively community gathering place, like Old Town Pasadena or Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade.

The conceptual plan for the project is scheduled to be approved by the Redevelopment Agency in September.

Phil Lanzafame, assistant director of development services, said the city does not yet have a plan to acquire and relocate businesses in the area.

And a plan won't be developed until an environmental impact report on the project is completed and the city has signed an agreement to proceed with redevelopment. The city owns about 9.2 acres of the site. The remainder has yet to be acquired.

Under California law, property owners must be compensated for the fair market value of their buildings if the city condemns them for redevelopment. Displaced tenants must also be compensated for relocation costs.

If a business moves before a building is condemned, the owner has to pay all relocation costs himself.

Lydia McGhie said she first heard about the redevelopment project back in 1972, when she took over the store after her husband's death. At the time, the shop occupied just one unit of the building and was struggling financially.

Working as an executive secretary for an investment company, McGhie knew little about tools, so she placed an ad in The Wall Street Journal, offering the business for sale.

But her suppliers discouraged her from selling, she said. They promised to extend her credit and train her two sons in the business, because she had made good on the debts her husband owed.

Lydia McGhie said when times were tough, she used money out of her own savings to keep the business afloat, pay bills and meet the payroll.

``(My employees) all have children and have been with me for a long time,'' she said. ``I don't want any of them to be affected by pulling up roots. I care about them.''

Scotty's now takes up four of the six units in a red-brick, one-story building in the 200 block of West Harvard. It employs nine people, many of whom have worked in the store for decades.

``(Lydia) is like a second mother to me,'' said Evangelina Flores, who has worked for Scotty's for 25 years, since her senior year in high school.

Across the street from Scotty's, Robert Kennedy, owner of Kennedy Wholesale, a third-generation snack and candy distribution business, said that being in a redevelopment zone has made it difficult for him to sell the building.

``We couldn't sell the property for a reasonable value because nobody knows what would be done with it,'' he said.

During the years he has waited for a project to materialize, Kennedy's business has outgrown the one-story building, and he's planning to move soon at his own expense.

``When it happens, it happens. I have given up on it,'' he said. ``We have to do our own thing. I can't wait for the city any longer.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

Lydia McGhie, owner of Scotty's & Sons tool store, is facing uncertainty triggered by a proposed residential and retail project. The development may force her business to move out of town.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Map:

Kennedy Wholesale

Scotty's & Sons

Proposed site of Town Center development