Waterfront: Redondo Beach developer CenterCal Properties has taken its share of hits since last March when voters attempted to stymie the company’s King Harbor-area redevelopment effort by passing a strict rezoning measure.
This week, CenterCal released a new set of drawings and plans to gauge interest for a scaled-down revision that they hope might be a settling point between the developer and its estranged business partner, the City of Redondo Beach.
“Instead of being in a stand-off for years, maybe we’ll see how this works…we wanted everyone to know that we do listen; we want to listen to the right people, and the right people are the City Council,” Bruning said. “If the economics don’t work for the City, if this project doesn’t, then we go to Plan B.”
Bruning said that CenterCal’s new plan was presented before the City Council, which City sources indicate took place during a Closed Session meeting. The Council regularly discusses its ongoing litigation regarding CenterCal during Closed Session meetings.
The revised drawings show a drastically different north side of the project. The area is now entirely surface parking, doing away with a planned parking structure. The original Market Hall is pared down, allowing for more surface parking near the current locations of R10 Social house and Samba Brazilian Grill.
A summary notes the project includes only one second-story project use: 14,200 square feet of office space. Every other building, it indicates, is single-story, including a planned 14,545 square foot hostel near the water’s edge. All told, the new concept reduces the size of the project by 150,000 square feet. The southern portion of the project – including a planned hotel – is mostly untouched.
“We just want to get the Council’s comment, get Coastal staff comment, and see if this is a way to bring the parties together as opposed to being at opposite ends of the pole,” Bruning said.
A recent court ruling regarding the project’s environmental impact report said that neither CenterCal nor the City could move the project forward. But that, Bruning believes, is relative to Coastal Commission decisions, not the City.
Redondo Mayor Bill Brand said, in a statement: “CenterCal sued our City three times and two of their longtime supporters, Arnette Travis and Chris Voisey, are now using a CenterCal lawyer to personally sue myself, Council Member [Nils] Nehrenheim and Rescue Our Waterfront,” Brand said. “The City is not in negotiations with CenterCal, we’re all busy defending ourselves in court.”
