A class action lawsuit filed against the city of Arcadia and Extended Stay Hotels claims the city "improperly levied a daily room tax" on guests staying beyond 30 days and violated state and local law.
Developer Rick Caruso said he is in the process of finalizing a new deal with Santa Anita Park's owners to build an outdoor mall at the race track's south parking lot. MI Developments (MID) (owner of track), voided a 2005 joint-venture development agreement with Caruso Affiliated in April 2010 for the proposed 825,000 square feet The Shops at Santa Anita, as part of MID's bankruptcy reorganization. MID and Caruso have been renegotiating since, and the development will be similar with some minor variations.
Motel 6, which was damaged during the June 1991 Sierra Madre earthquake, is reopening. The 87 room hotel at 225 Colorado Place was gutted and completely rebuilt with new furnishings.
The addition of a new hotel on the corner of Second Avenue and Santa Clara Street in Arcadia would bring an additional 159 rooms to an area which already boasts eight hotels along a one mile stretch of the Huntington Drive corridor.
The Arcadia Police Department sponsors a group of young people which is also sanctioned by the Boy Scouts of America and is known as the Arcadia Police Explorer Post #101.
Tallest building in Arcadia sells for $25.6 million. It has been sold to Positive Investments, Inc. by Farazian Family Trust. It has 8 floors, anchored by Bank of America. Another tenant is former Arcadia City Mayor Jim Helms of Helms & Myers, a law firm. Bank of America is 180 N. Santa Anita Avenue, Helms & Myers is at 150 N. Santa Anita Avenue, Suite 685.
City of Arcadia Mayor Gary Kovacic proclaims March 2 "Bobbie the Bobcat's New Friend: Day of Kindness" for Barnhart School's student-created book launch. It will be read at Arcadia Public Library on Read Across America Day.
Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension moves ahead. Contractor Kiewit Parsons is given full "notice to proceed" to build the 11.5 mile route for the light rail train from Pasadena to Azusa, with a stop in Arcadia, by a planned 2015 completion date.
Arcadia voters consider extending hotel-room tax in the ballot Measure D. It is meant to close a loophole in a city ordinance on the transient tax. Currently, the city imposes a tax rate of 10% of the rent paid by guests to occupy a room up to 30 consecutive days. If the measure passes by a majority vote, the occupancy tax would be imposed the first 90 days of a stay.
Santa Anita Park's ownership changed hands on April 30 after Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment Corp. (MEC) transferred many of its assets to Stronach's MI Developments (MID) (one of MEC's creditors), as part of a bankruptcy restructuring plan. Last week MI Developments, a real estate operating company, canceled its 2005 agreement with Caruso Affiliated to develop to the proposed mall known as The Shops at Santa Anita, but this week MI Developments hopes to work out a deal with developer Rick Caruso to build an upscale retail project in the track's parking lot.
On January 22, 1999, ground was broken for construction of a 124 room Hilton Garden Inn and an 84 room Marriott SpringHill Suites along Arcadia's hotel-row