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Eminence Front: 'Americana At Brand' Expansion Hearing Halted
Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Owners of the Golden Key Hotel and Americana at Brand in Glendale "agreed to postpone a hearing on their competing redevelopment proposals to allow more time for negotiations," reports the Glendale News-Press. The new hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Hotel owner Ray Patel -- who turned down a $6-million buyout offer -- and Americana at Brand developer Rick Caruso were met today by Patel supporters reportedly chanting "Let Ray Stay" as they approached City Hall, "where the City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, was scheduled to consider Rick Caruso's plans to expand his mall," notes the Glendale News-Press.
Caruso is proposing to demolish Patel's Golden Key Hotel and an adjacent building in order to expand his 15.5-acre shopping center and add 135,000 square feet of retail space. In January Caruso acquired the adjacent building. Property rights advocates accuse the Glendale Redevelopment Agency of favoring "big money" rather than seeking to removing blight.
Though "city officials have steered clear of publicly threatening Patel with eminent domain proceedings if he continues to dig in his heels," notes the Glendale News-Press, the Golden Key Hotel is located in an area where city has the power of eminent domain; a "redevelopment area" established almost 40 years ago.
Patel has been fighting Caruso's proposal and has submitted a counter proposal to "add 14 rooms and a rooftop pool to the hotel, while also reworking the exterior so that shares a more similar appearance as the Americana at Brand," notes the Glendale News-Press.
A June trial date has been scheduled for the 2008 lawsuit Patel filed against Caruso the city alleging his business suffered damaged during the construction of the mall between 2005 and 2008.
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