Newhall, CA Redevelopment: Santa Clarita City Council to Approve Acquisition of CarQuest Building

As maligned as the Old Town (Downtown) Newhall Redevelopment Plan may be, especially in light of the upcoming expansion of the Valencia Town Center Mall and the planned The Avenue at Santa Clarita development, the City of Santa Clarita is aggressively moving forward to acquire the properties in the Spruce Street area.

Properties in this area include the CarQuest building, the Antique Flower Garden, White Light Chiropractic Center, Just Passing Thru Body Piercing, and Paws for Fun Doggie Day Care. These are being acquired so the so-called Library Project can be built on this site.

The Santa Clarita City Council is set to approve the acquisition of the CarQuest building for $1.715 million at their meeting on December 11, 2007. They are also allocating an additional $15,000 towards purchase costs (escrow, title, environmental reports, etc). The CarQuest operation is a tenant in this building, so the purchase is for the building itself, not for relocating its occupants. That will be handled under separate negotiations.

The CarQuest purchase actually includes three separate parcels: the lot the building sits on, and two parcels that make up the parking lot. The CarQuest facility faces San Fernando Road, and includes frontage on 11th Street and Spruce Street as well. The included parcels are as follows:

• 24533 San Fernando Road: 950 square foot lot (parking).
• 24522 San Fernando Road: 2,518 square foot lot (parking).
• 24535 San Fernando Road: 6,686 square foot lot with a 5,424 square foot building.

Property owners in the Spruce Street area of Old Town Newhall have been told that they may be allowed to remain in place up to 18 months after the City’s acquisition of this area is complete on a rent-free basis, since clearly leaving the buildings vacant for that period of time would invite squatters and vandalism to the area. However, at some point these businesses will need to set up shop elsewhere, so it’s unclear how many will take advantage of this "offer" and for how long.

What is unclear at this point is how much the City will offer to help these businesses relocate to new facilities within the Santa Clarita Valley. So far, the initial offers for the purchase of the buildings alone have been very low, but at least the CarQuest owners were able to negotiate a price that they were satisfied with.

It should be noted that none of these property owners are being given a choice of whether to "sell" to the City of Santa Clarita or not. They can either negotiate out of court, or the City will file formal eminent domain actions against them and let the court decide what they will receive for their properties. So far, all property owners in the area are attempting to negotiate with the City, with Paul Brotzman and Chris Price acting as the "good cop, bad cop" team during the negotiating process.

Stay tuned for more updates as they become available!