The representative for the shopping center’s owners said grading will start after Wednesday next week. He also plans to do more outreach in the community on their behalf.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
The long-debated renovation and expansion of the Trancas Country Market shopping center is scheduled to begin next week after four years of lawsuits and boisterous city hall meetings, a representative for the mall’s owners said Tuesday.
Scott Rozier, the representative for the mall’s owners, said he expects grading for the project to begin after Wednesday next week. Grading permits for the project have been approved by the city, although 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. Rozier expects the project to be completed in July or Aug. 2012.
Rozier also confirmed that HOWS Trancas Market would be leaving the shopping center by Monday, although employees at the grocery said it would close Wednesday this week. Rozier said he was hoping to find another grocery store to lease the HOWS site.
The expansion and renovation 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 HOWS market, which is going out of business; and an on-site alternative wastewater treatment system.
The long road of approval for the project has been a contentious one since it was first introduced by former part-owner Dan Bercu in 2007. Supporters and opponents argued over size limitations, parking, emergency access and environmental concerns, in addition to the noise and traffic mitigation.
Bercu had to scuttle the original plans to add five buildings (totaling 37,372 square feet) in 2009 in favor of a smaller development after facing stiff opposition from the Malibu West HOA and other residents. The city Planning Commission passed the project in 2009, and the City Council added its approval in January 2010.
But appeals by residents and lawsuits filed by local activist Hans Laetz caused delays in the project that Bercu said caused one of his two partners, Chicago-based La Salle Investment Management, to put its share up for sale at $20 million in March 2010. The mall reportedly passed to new ownership in August last year, but as late as February Bercu was still speaking to The Malibu Times as its representative.
Then, in early April, Trancas Gardens Nursery, a longtime tenant of the shopping center, was served a 30-day eviction notice by the Los Angeles law firm Loeb & Loeb, the legal representative for the mall owners. 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.
Bercu did not return phone calls from local media outlets, and the identity of the new owners was unknown until May, when a PR firm hired by the owners confirmed the mall had been purchased by Paige and Bo Dubbert. Paige Dubbert is the daughter of Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie.
Douglas Burdge, the architect for the project, told The Malibu Times Tuesday the Dubberts have stopped using Loeb & Loeb as their spokesperson and instead have tapped Rozier, whose company Rosch Company LLC is overseeing the construction process, as their representative in the community.
Rozier confirmed this Tuesday in a phone interview with The Malibu Times.
“We’re going in a new direction with respect to [how] we want to make the center work for the community,” Rozier said. “We wish we could go back and do things a little differently, but that’s what we’re doing now. We want to make it right for the community.”
Rozier said he had met with representatives of the Trancas Canyon Nursery.
“We’ve met with the nursery,” Rozier said. “We’re communicating and it’s going great.”
While Rozier’s company is overseeing the construction, the contractor for the project is actually the RMS Group from Westminster, Calif.