A Los Angeles resident, who is in escrow for the Schultz property, says he should finalize a deal with the food chain, which sells largely natural and organic foods, within two months.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
An unplanned announcement was made at Monday’s City Council meeting that a Whole Foods Market could be coming to the Civic Center area in the near future.
During the discussion of an item where the Schultz family, owner of a six-acre property in the area, was requesting that a proposed Civic Center storm water treatment facility be shortened from 15 feet to 10 feet, an attorney for the family said Whole Foods was a possible tenant for a future structure on the Schultz property. It was then further revealed that a man who has the property in escrow, Gordon Ekstrand, was at the meeting.
“The property is in escrow with the intention to develop a project that will include Whole Foods,” Ekstrand said after the meeting.
Ekstrand said Whole Foods, a grocery chain that specializes in high-end organic foods, was doing a sales study to determine whether it would be feasible to have a market in Malibu. He said he expects to finalize a deal with the company within the next 45 to 60 days. Ekstrand said he would not close escrow on the Schultz property if Whole Foods decides against coming to Malibu.
The Schultz site is located on the northwest corner of Civic Center Way and Cross Creek Road, across from Taverna Tony’s restaurant.
Ekstrand, a Los Angeles resident, said he does not have any partners in this project.
He said if the Whole Foods deal works out, escrow could close on the property before the end of the year. He declined to say how much he would be paying for the land.
Plans for a development are only in the discussion stages with the city, Ekstrand said. But he said a basic concept is for a 40,000 to 50,000 square-foot development that is mostly taken up by Whole Foods, with a few additional businesses.
Ekstrand said if things go smoothly, Malibu residents could expect to walk into a Whole Foods in the Civic Center area two and a half years from now.
Earlier development plans for the Schultz property had included the donation of a portion of the land, with a new skate park being built on it. Ekstrand said he has discussed the possibility of doing that, but there might be some issues that prevent that from happening.
Several years ago a project was proposed for the construction of a 20,850-square-foot office park, consisting of six one-story structures and a 16,000-square-foot Longs Drug Store. Additionally, the new skate park would have been built there. The proposal was presented to the city’s Environmental Review Board in the spring of 2004. At the time, city officials said a draft environmental impact report for the project would be released soon. That never occurred, and rumors about plans for the land have circulated throughout the city ever since.