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Submitted by Scott Hettrick on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 1:31am.
by Scott Hettrick
Whatever you may think about the construction of the Shops at Santa Anita proposed by Rick Caruso (who, incidentally, is now considering running for Mayor of Los Angeles), there are such significant impacts hitting Arcadia residents, the City of Arcadia, and the Arcadia Unified School District as the result of the two lawsuits filed early last year by Westfield and its funded Arcadia First! group, that it's time to drop or resolve the lawsuits immediately.
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Westfield Lawsuits: Ripple Effects Too Damaging
by Scott Hettrick- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
First of all, the suits are filed against the City, not Caruso Affiliated, meaning they are draining a good deal of the City's manpower resources to defend the unanimous approval of the Shops at Santa Anita by the City Council more than a year ago and the City's most exhaustive Environmental Impact Report ever. It is the latter that the lawsuits are challenging as insufficient. (Fortunately, Caruso Affiliated has agreed to put up the City's financial cost to defend itself, as well as provide resource support for the legal defense).
At a time when the national economy continues to decline fast, when California is facing brutal state budget cuts that will hit the City and especially Arcadia School District hard, when Santa Anita Park lost $100,000 -- 13% -- in revenue this past season due to rain that wouldn't drain from the new synthetic track, and when one of the City's largest single revenue-generators -- Rusnak Arcadia's Mercedes Benz dealership with a minimum annual guarantee of $700,00 per year to the City -- reiterated its intention last month to leave Arcadia, the lawsuits have already cost the City and residents more than a year's delay in collecting the projected $2.5 million in annual revenue from the Shops at Santa Anita. The delay was extended last month by most likely at least another 90 days by the new judge hearing the case. And most observers expect Westfield and Arcadia First! to immediately appeal in the event of an unfavorable decision, which would mean at least another 6 months on top of that. (Westfield itself generates $3.8 million annually from its 250 licensed shopping mall businesses combined, including nine of the top 25 revenue producers in the City as of third quarter 2007 -- Borders, The Cheesecake Factory, Dave & Busters, H&M, JC Penney, Macy's, Nordstrom, Old Navy, and Sport Chalet. Santa Anita Park provides another $1.6 million to the City from pari-mutuel betting and sales taxes -- down from an inflation-adjusted $3.9 million in 1989-90.)
Worse, the delays caused by the lawsuits already mean that the school district -- in the midst of a five-year overhaul of nearly every school buidling as part of the $218 million bond issue -- will now be forced to spend a significant portion of that money to find temporary housing for the administration and Arcadia Education Foundation offices. All parties involved had agreed to let Caruso Affiliated provide brand new state-of-the-art school administration offices at the nearby Shops at Santa Anita free of charge for decades. Had Westfield and Arcadia First! not filed their lawsuits, those offices would have been ready by the end of next year -- 2009 -- or early 2010. That would have been perfect timing for the school district, which will be tearing down the existing old and cramped office building on Campus Drive about then to make room for a new Performing Arts Center. The lawsuits have already pushed that timetable back by 14 months-and-counting.
The school district, which has no contingency plan at the moment, will likely have to use money earmarked for much-needed improvements to pay for temporary housing of administration offices and deal with two moves in a short period of time and all the logistical inconveniences that entails.
Westfield has heretofore and otherwise been a good corporate citizen in Arcadia until it was faced with its first real competition.
For the good of the community at every level, it's time for Westfield and Arcadia First! to either drop their lawsuits or do all in their power to reach a settlement.
It appears that there is little chance that the two lawsuits will prevent the construction of the Shops at Santa Anita, only perhaps force the City to demand that Caruso Affiliated make some modifications to its environmental impact mitigations. It is also clear now that with the nearly year-and-a-half delay, Westfield will easily get its own upscale shopping mall open at least a year or two or more ahead of the Shops at Santa Anita.
There is nothing more to gain but plenty for the innocent residents and school district to lose.
School Administration building
Read the agreement between the school district and Caruso. That administration building is an unfinished "shell" with the utilities brought to the exterior wall. It'll take $5 million from the districts resources to finish and furnish it. That is not a "state-of-the-art" building.
Response to "School Administration Building"by anonymous Visitor
I actually saw a copy of original agreement and have it somewhere. You're right that it will not be furnished and maybe state-of-the-art is too strong an adjective -- I was referring to the building itself which will be brand new and part of the upscale complex of Shops at Santa Anita. I am not aware of school district reporting any figure associated with the furnishing -- is your $5 million figure an official projection by district? In any case, my concern is the financial drain and logistical nightmare of creating interim temporary housing, which will be significant additional cost on top of the $5 million or whatever it costs to furnish the new school district administration offices. Scott
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