The Manhattan Beach City Council approved plans to overhaul the Manhattan Village Mall by one vote in the early morning hours Wednesday.
The vote capped an eight-year saga that included 10 city council meetings and eight planning commission meetings. Because the proposed overhaul required changes to the property’s zoning and permit, it needed city approval.
“This decision is probably the biggest decision that will face this city council,” said Councilmember Tony D’Errico before the vote. “It’s a decision that will live with our city for the next forty years.”
The developer, RREEF America Reit Corp BBB II, plans to create an open-air mall flanked by a three-story parking garage. Macy’s, the anchor store which currently houses its men’s and women’s sections in two different parts of the mall, is to be consolidated into one expanded store.
The council held off on approving the final phase of the project, which would incorporate the northwestern corner of the property, where Fry’s currently sits. RREEF said that deferring the approval would allow it “to design Phase III in a manner that responds to the market at the time” and to better integrate it into the first two phases, which will add 110,000 square feet to the mall’s current 572,800 square feet.
Changes to the mall were first proposed in 2006 by RREEF, which owns the largest piece of the 44-acre property on which the mall sits. The project’s approval process was complicated by the fact that the property is owned by three different companies, one of which, 3500 Sepulveda LLC, objected to some elements of the plan.
Most recently, the City Council asked RREEF to make some changes to its latest plan in May. There was no response from the developer until November, prompting some to wonder if RREEF was dropping the project. At the December meeting, Councilmember David Lesser asked the representative from RREEF the reason for the delay.
“I have to ask: What took so long?” asked Lesser, to applause from the audience and a cry of “Please!” from the mayor asking for order.
RREEF’s Joe Saunders said the reason was the conditions imposed by the council, which included reducing the parking garage to two levels and approving the final phase.
“We couldn’t do it,” said Saunders. “We felt like it was dead at that point because we couldn’t deliver the project.”
When RREEF came back with its response in November, it said it couldn’t eliminate the third level but offered to set it back 90 feet from the street. It also said that it didn’t want the final Phase approved. Instead, it said it would spruce up the northwestern corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue with landscaping and signage until the final construction begins. The council ultimately agreed to these stipulations with its 3-2 vote.
Another reason for the delay was that the project manager left and was replaced by Saunders.
Lesser then asked if it was true, as a member of the public alleged, that the company “blew off the direction of the council.”
“We certainly didn’t blow it off,” said Saunders. “We were stunned. We thought the project was dead.”
Ten residents spoke during the public comment section of the meeting. Many objected to the timing of the vote after the Thanksgiving holiday. However, Mayor Wayne Powell was adamant that proper notice had been given.
“You people are politicians,” said Michelle Murphy. “You should know people are not going to like you sneaking something by.”
Powell interrupted, saying, “It’s not sneaking something by.”
“It looks like that to me and many other people,” she said, before he finished.
During the meeting, representatives from 3500 Sepulveda LLC said that RREEF hadn’t negotiated in good faith with them, as the City Council directed them to in May.
“They met with us and said, ‘We are the bigger property owner, you’ve got to do what we want,’” said Mark Neumann of 3500 Sepulveda LLC. “I feel like I’ve been backed into a corner throughout this whole process.”
One of Neumann’s objections to the plan is its impact on parking. After the council’s vote, he said his tenants, which include SusieCakes, Vintage Shoppe and Tin Roof Bistro, weren’t happy.
“Customers will have nowhere to park for two and a half years during construction,” he said. “I anticipate a couple of tenants will go bankrupt because of the loss of business.”
To appease 3500 Sepulveda LLC, RREEF said it would create 30 new parking spaces in the culvert next to Fry’s, with a stairway and elevator that will lead directly to 3500 Sepulveda. Separately, it said it would provide a right-turn deceleration lane on Sepulveda Boulevard at 33rrd Street.
Councilmembers Mark Burton and D’Errico worried that the agreement didn’t guarantee some of the project’s goals outlined at the start, such as consolidating Macy’s and integrating the northwest corner of the property into the mall. Under the agreement, RREEF can opt to pay Macy’s $2.5 million instead of building the larger store.
Burton and D’Errico asked for 120 days to iron out the fine details, but Councilmember Amy Howorth rejected the proposal.
“One hundred and twenty days isn’t going to change anything,” she said. “It’s not going to make it an easier decision.”
Burton then asked for 60 days, but Howorth, Lesser and Powell didn’t go for it.
Lesser said that while RREEF’s vision wasn’t what he would’ve chosen, he supported the project in part because it would allow the mall to compete better with other malls, such as The Point, a new project being developed across Rosecrans Avenue in El Segundo.
“I want to give the owner of the property additional tools to attract customers,” he said.
In an email sent out the day after the vote, the city said that its next step “will be working closely with the developer and property owners on a schedule for construction of the project.”
