City Hall to begin talks with Sears property owner
Though they have no specific plan for it, City Hall officials want to buy a 40,000-square-foot piece of land in downtown Santa Monica.
The property, located at 402 Colorado Ave., is owned by Sears and is used as a retail outlet and car repair shop.
Officials said Monday the land could be the ideal site for the western end of a proposed light rail line from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. It also could be used to build affordable housing or a new parking structure, officials said.
“There are a number of different possibilities,” said Mark Richter, City Hall’s director of economic development, who added that “there could not be a more perfect westerly terminus for the light rail project.”
“There could not be a more perfect westerly terminus for the light rail project.” — — MARK RICHTER Director, City’s economic development
The owner of the property agreed a few weeks ago to discuss the possibility of selling to City Hall. Richter said those discussions will begin in the next few weeks but it will be months before any decision is made by the City Council.
If a price is set for 402 Colorado Ave., officials will then determine how the property can best be used. from downtown LA to Santa Monica are still preliminary, said David Mieger, director of Westside planning for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees transportation issues in LA County. Although $505 million has been set aside for the first phase of the line, which goes to Culver City and is scheduled to be completed in 2012, no money has been earmarked for the second phase, which would bring the light rail line into Santa Monica.
In the meantime, Richter said the first step in the potential purchase is to determine if the seller really wants to sell and then negotiate a price for the property. He added that Sears officials have not expressed any interest in selling the main retail center, located at 302 Colorado Ave.
However, that property is part of a master plan for downtown Santa Monica that is on hold because of the budget crisis. Officials hope to one day make a giant public space downtown, stretching from the Third Street Promenade, past City Hall and the Santa Monica Courthouse.
Exactly how much the property is worth is unclear.
Commercial real estate broker Barbara Tenzer said the land is “not cheap” but added that its exact value depends on a host of factors, including what the buyer could build there and what the parking requirements would be. She added that there have been no recent sales of downtown properties that would compare in price of a parcel that large.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 16, 2003. Read the original PDF.