Monterey Park Landfill Set to House City's Major Retail Site.Monterey Park Monterey Park, city (1990 pop. 60,738), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a growing residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1916. It is a wholesale, retail, and financial services center. is on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of getting its first major retail development, bringing new shopping alternatives to area residents and an estimated 35 percent bump in the city's sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. base. Ezralow Retail Properties, after spending more than two years and $5 million on its attempt to redevelop re·de·vel·op v. re·de·vel·oped, re·de·vel·op·ing, re·de·vel·ops v.tr. 1. To develop (something) again. 2. the retail center atop a former municipal landfill, is expecting to close escrow escrow Instrument, such as a deed, money, or property, that constitutes evidence of obligations between two or more parties and is held by a third party. It is delivered by the third party only upon fulfillment of some condition. late this week on its purchase of the 45-acre site. "Honestly? I can tell you now, had I known how difficult it would be, I would have walked away," said Douglas Gray, president of Ezralow. It's been pretty tough from the beginning. While the planned 512,000- square-foot Monterey Park Marketplace is already 98 percent pre-leased, at annual rents ranging from $15 to $28 per foot, Gray said that Ezralow had sunk more than $1 million into the project before a single tenant was on board. Among those that have signed on are Best Buy, Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box , Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme is a chain of doughnut stores. Its parent company is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD), based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. , Staples and Target. Gray said that once Ezralow closes escrow, construction will be fast-tracked and the center should be open by the end of August. The project site sits directly across the Pomona (60) Freeway from the former Operating Industries Inc. landfill, which, though inactive since 1984, is still listed as a federal Superfund site. While the municipal landfill on which Monterey Park Marketplace is being developed is not part of the OII OII Oxford Internet Institute (UK) OII Office of Innovation and Improvement OII Occupational Injury or Illness OII Open Information Interchange OII Online Innovation Institute OII Operations-Intelligence Interface Superfund site, it too is listed as a Superfund site and federal approval was needed before development could begin. Gray said that Ezralow is required to cap the municipal landfill and install a gas-collection system before building a Home Depot on top of it. Besides providing residents with shopping opportunities, the center is also being seen as a boon to city coffers. City Manager Chris Jeffers said the proposed $80 million development would produce $500,000 a year in property taxes. Further, Jeffers said, the center would generate another $1 million to $1.2 million in sales taxes to the city, a 35 percent increase over current levels. That would mean an increase of 8 percent to the city's $22 million general fund. Even with all the headaches that come with trying to negotiate with the federal government, local governments and multiple site owners, Gray said that Monterey Park Marketplace will ultimately be worth it. "It's not as fat as a normal development deal, and I admit that," he said. "I like projects that other people have trouble making work. It gives me a sense of accomplishment." |
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