Downtown 2000, the $4 million revitalization project, will primarily affect Huntington Drive and First Ave. Huntington Drive will have more landscaping and lighting, while First Ave. will have angled parking and landscaping to be more pedestrian oriented.
Arcadia City Council voted 4-0 in favor of searching for a temporary contractor for the Downtown 2000 project. Striking workers have caused delays and fears of future health problems.
The $4.1 million Downtown 2000 plan will restore the area along Huntington Drive from Santa Clara to 5th Avenue, as well as on 1st Ave. The project should start in June and be completed by the fall racing season.
Construction crews began digging up streets and sidewalks along Huntington Drive in June for the City's Downtown 2000 Renovation Project. Traffic jams, frustrated customers and declining sales have been the result.
A new developer has been selected by the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency to build on the vacant lot at the corner of Huntington Drive and First Ave., the site of the now defunct Falzone project. The agency selected Halferty Development Co. of Pasadena to build a 2-story professional and financial office building on the site.
The urban design team of Freedman, Tung, and Bottomley made its first recommendations to develop the city's Downtown Revitalization Plan. Ideas included removing parallel street parking along Huntington Drive and adding eight pedestrian crosswalks, as well as creating themes based on Santa Anita Park.
City officials determined that Sulley-Miller is in gross violation of the Downtown 2000 project. In a unanimous vote, city officials terminated this company as contractor for the project.
Arcadia launches the new Arcadia Downtown Business Association, with plans to revitalize the downtown district. Matt McSweeney is the association's chairperson and owner of Matt Denny's Ale House Restaurant on East Huntington Drive. City officials will spend about $90,000 on a parking study and about $18,000 in redevelopment funds to get Arcadia Downtown Business Association off the ground. The revitalization plans should work nicely with the slated opening of the Gold Line station at the northwest corner of North First Avenue and East Santa Clara Street by 2014.
The Arcadia City Council has signed agreements with Republic Development Company for the development of the area along Huntington Drive east of First Avenue.
The proposed new office building for the corner of Huntington Drive and First Avenue has run into a delay caused by a lack of tenants, according to Warren Lortie, president of the development firm WLA Arcon of Huntington Beach. Arcon requested and got a 90-day extension on its deadline.
Between August 11 and September 30, the city will install brick sidewalks on Huntington Drive between 2nd Avenue and Santa Clara Street as the first major phase of Arcadia's downtown revitalization project.
The City Council and the company originally hired for downtown street improvements are on collision course with a lawsuit. Each side says the other may be in breach of contract.
Arcadia City Council may declare the Downtown 2000 construction project a potential health emergency in order to suspend it's contract with striking workers and hire another firm to do the work until the strike is over.
Freedman, Tung, and Bottomley, a highly regarded urban design team from San Francisco, has been hired to revitalize Arcadia's historic downtown and mom-and-pop shops.
Arcadia city officials will consider changes to its General Plan, a 25-year blueprint for land-use decisions. The new plan aims to revitalize the city's downtown (First Avenue and Huntington Drive) as well as the Live Oak Corridor in the city's southern end. "We're making it easier to develop the downtown and the area around the (future) Gold Line station," said Council Bob Harbicht. If approved, it would allow for mixed-use commercial and residential complexes, commercial square footages could double and the height limit would increase from 40 to 45 feet.
The dissolution of the agreement between the city and Republic Development Company will take effect this week. Republic has been working for close to three years on the redevelopment project along Huntington Dr. City Council has, in effect, voted against the use of eminent domain making it impossible for the Development Company to talk to buyers.
Within the next few months several new developments will be cropping up along Huntington Drive: construction of a 7-story office building at 1st Avenue, erection of the Southland National Bank at 5th Avenue, and construction of a Target Department Store at 3rd Avenue. There are also plans to construct a new police station, city hall, senior citizens center and auditorium at a total estimated cost of $19 million.
The Arcadia City Council plans to seek more than $1 million in damages against its original contractor for cost overruns in the City's Downtown 2000 revitalization project.
Article reports on progress with two parcels involving a proposed Hometel 300-room hotel at the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Huntington Drive and a proposed office building at the southwest corner of Huntington Drive and Fifth Avenue.