A full page color advertisement solicits Arcadia residents' reviews on the new mall to be built by Caruso Affiliated on the Santa Anita Park race track parking lot. The mall will be called The Shops at Santa Anita.
Westfield Group is funding a new "grass roots" coalition to oppose the Santa Anita Park race track mall development by Caruso Affiliated. The coalition is called Arcadia First! but includes Westfield representatives, Westfield tenants and downtown businesses, and not only citizens, as the membership in a grass roots organization might suggest.
Developer Rick Caruso of Caruso Affiliated is no longer pursuing a deal with Santa Anita Park owners MI Developments to develop an outdoor mall in the race track's parking lot. The project was known as The Shops at Santa Anita. Caruso said, "We're not pursuing it, because of the (Magna Entertainment Corp.) bankruptcy...and everything else." Arcadia city councilman Mickey Segal said it's a loss of "a projected $2.5 million to $3 million of revenue (each year) to the city" in sales and property tax.
Caruso and Westfield are still battling over the proposed Caruso lifestyle center. A decade ago the race track's south parking lot had been rezoned for commercial development. Rick Caruso feels his development will help Westfield while Westfield believes a new mall will cannibalize tenants and harm both companies and the city's sales tax revenues.
Residents voice concerns over the Santa Anita Park race track parking lot development of an outdoor mall to include retail, commercial and apartment space. Residents worry about how the quality of life in Arcadia will be affected. A draft of the environmental report should be ready by late June.
The mall war continues as each side publishes public poll results. Westfield conducted a poll showing 57% of 400 respondents opposed to the new mall. Caruso did not release full results of its survey.
Two new issues brought up by Westfield Group against the Caruso project may go to Arcadia voters in a special election in November. One issue is to ban paid parking and the other is to prevent Caruso from erecting large billboards at the mall. Any election could cost the city up to $80,000.
Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach, who is about to become the sole owner of Santa Anita Park, said he hasn't ruled out talking to developer Rick Caruso about reviving a project to build an outdoor mall in the race track's parking lot. Last week Caruso announced that he is no longer pursuing a development deal with Santa Anita Park's outgoing owner, MI Developments, Inc. (MID), for the upscale Shops at Santa Anita. Stronach is the outgoing chairman of MID.
George Haines, General Manager of Santa Anita Park race track, writes an open letter in support of the Caruso Affiliated development called The Shops at Santa Anita.
Developer Rick Caruso and his company are soliciting the Arcadia community's thoughts on his $400 million mall project slated for the parking lot of Santa Anita Park. A "scoping session" designed to solicit public views on what should be included in the environmental review will take place at City Council chambers at 7pm on April 7, 2005.
Judge James C. Chalfant stands by his July decision that the environmental impact report (EIR) that Arcadia officials relied upon in approving the mall was faulty in 11 areas and that it would have to be revised before the Caruso mall project, proposed for the Santa Anita Park race track parking lot, known as the Shops at Santa Anita, can move forward.
Westfield Group has vowed not to donate to City Council campaigns in the April 2006 election, joining mall rival Rick Caruso and Caruso Affiliated, who made a similar pledge in September.
Arcadia City Council voted unanimously to give the final approval on Rick Caruso's The Shops at Santa Anita mall. The City Council also approved an expansion project for the Westfield mall with one condition.
Arcadia officials will meet with Santa Anita Park's majority owner Frank Stronach, to talk about the mall project that fell through with Caruso Affiliated, and to see if Stronach still envisions a high end retail project to develop on the track parking lot.
Arcadia First!, a group opposing the Caruso mall project, is made up mostly of residents and business owners but bankrolled by Westfield Corporation. Arcadia First's revenues and expenditures are revealed in this article.
Frank Stronach, chairman of MI Developments, the owner of Santa Anita Park, says he is optimistic his company can work out a new deal with developer Rick Caruso to build an outdoor mall at Santa Anita Park, even though he voided a 2005 joint-venture agreement with Caruso in April to build the Shops at Santa Anita mall in the race track's parking lot.
Rick Caruso writes to the editor in response to the article "Arcadia braces for possible mall wars at Santa Anita." He says it will not be a war but an integrated project that should benefit his property and Westfield Shoppingtown.