The popular community-gathering place is close to agreeing to a long-term lease with the owners of the Trancas Country Market shopping center. Other developments around town, such as the Windsail/PierView site restaurants, are progressing.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
The long-simmering saga of the Trancas Gardens Nursery is nearing a happy ending for owners Debbi Stone and Carlos Cabrera. Stone confirmed Tuesday that she and Cabrera had signed a non-binding letter of intent on the broad outlines of a five-year lease for the nursery with the owners of the Trancas Country Market shopping center. Stone called the lease terms “good and fair.”
“I really feel like [the owners’ representatives] are working in good faith, and we’re working in good faith,” Stone said. “It’s moving along well, I have to say that.”
The agreement comes a little more than five months after the nursery was served an eviction notice in early April by Los Angeles law firm Loeb & Loeb, the legal representatives at the time for Trancas mall owners Paige and Bo Dubbert. The eviction notice prompted a dramatic outpouring of support from community members who wanted the nursery to stay. In the face of public pressure, the eviction was rescinded in late April, and the mall’s owners opened negotiations with the nursery owners on an extension to their lease.
Scott Rozier, who is overseeing the renovation and expansion project for the mall and serves as the public representative for the mall’s owners, confirmed the agreement. Rozier also said there were no immediate tenants lined up to occupy the space vacated by the former HOWS Trancas Market grocery.
“We’re trying to get a grocery store [in the space],” Rozier said.
Rozier also said that construction was proceeding on schedule for the renovation and expansion project, which is due to be completed by July or August 2012. The project will add 25,728 square feet of commercial space to the existing 27,695 square foot shopping center; a new parking lot north of the Chevron gas station; a new public parking lot north of the former HOWS market; and an on-site alternative wastewater treatment system.
Rozier said he is still negotiating with the Malibu West Homeowners Association on an emergency access easement behind the Trancas Canyon Chevron Station across Trancas Canyon Road from the mall.
Former Windsail and PierView restaurant site progressing
Meanwhile, construction at the double-lot near the Malibu Pier where the former Windsail and PierView restaurants once stood is progressing. The shells of two new restaurants have been erected, along with an interesting twist: a concrete basin has been poured between the two structures. Sources say the concrete basin will allow ocean waves to flow in at high tide, then flow around one of the restaurants and back out to the sea.
Although it has not been reconfirmed what restaurants will be at the site, in February of last year the representative handling the sites for owner Larry Ellison said that Japanese restaurant Nobu would move from the Malibu Country Mart to the site and that Wolfgang Puck would open an eatery there as well. An opening date of summer 2011 was targeted, but construction delays have occurred. Construction is now expected to be completed in early 2012.
Water-damaged condominiums on PCH
Eight white hillside condominiums on the inland side of the highway at 22065 Pacific Coast Highway, just west of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 70, have been undergoing extensive renovations for several months now. Officials in the city planning department said the condominiums were something of a “cursed” property, having gone in and out of bankruptcy for several years. After the previous owners went bankrupt in 2010, the property was sold at auction this past April for $14 million to a bank from Chicago, Ill.
The new owners bought the property, sources said, intending to update the facade, which dates back to the 1980s, and sell the eight units. However, after hiring a structural engineer, extensive water damage was discovered. Construction work performed on the roofs was apparently left unfinished when the previous owners entered bankruptcy in 2010, and the contractors put tarps across the roofs. Major rains this past winter caused the extensive water damage.
A representative of Yourico Construction, a contractor out of Glendale that is performing the upgrades, said construction would be finished in about six months.
Diesel, A Bookstore returning
John Evans, co-owner of Diesel, A Bookstore, said last week he is still targeting a mid- to late-October return for the independent bookstore that closed earlier this year. The bookstore left Malibu Village shopping center in February after seven years of operation. Evans confirmed earlier this month he and his partner, Alison Reid, had signed a lease in the Malibu Country Mart shopping center.
Evans said the bookstore was taking over the space previously occupied by the clothing store M. Fredric Kids. Currently, Evans and Reid are ordering the books needed and awaiting construction work being performed by the landlord to alter the space to make it ready to host a bookstore.