| Arcadia council weighs Caruso's mall proposal
ARCADIA - The rivalry between shopping center giants Caruso Affiliated and Westfield appears to be coming to a head in this city, as City Council members considered a 830,000-square-foot outdoor mall proposal brought before them Wednesday night. Caruso's upscale project, slated for the parking lot of the landmark Santa Anita Race Track, entered the final stages of city approval in a night filled with red "Yes!" buttons and black T-shirts printed with stop signs. The meeting began about 7p.m.; an inch-thick stack of requests to speak was barely dented by 9:30p.m. Audience members packed the Masonic Lodge, which had seats for 700. An overflow room at the nearby library had another 150 seats. A decision had not been reached as of late Wednesday. During his presentation before the City Council, developer and CEO Rick Caruso touted the project, known as The Shops at Santa Anita, as a community-friendly one that respects the race track's history.
Berthelot, Browning talk city business with Gonzales Rotary Club
Gonzales Mayor Johnny Berthelot and City Fire Chief Butch Browning jointly addressed the members of the Rotary Club of Gonzales at the Tuesday meeting.Berthelot discussed the city's proposed budget and the slew of businesses planned or under construction, and Browning gave an update of the Gonzales City Assisting People program which protects retirees and citizens in need of special assistance."It's exciting times in the city," Berthelot told Rotarians. "It's been really fun for the last few years." .
Developer may sell off NY, Mass. shopping malls
SYRACUSE, N.Y. The Syracuse-based company that owns some of New York's largest malls is considering putting some of those shopping centers and several others in Massachusetts up for sale. Robert Congel, founder of The Pyramid Companies, says the trustees of the family trusts that own a controlling interest in the company have hired Goldman, Sachs to look into the possibility of selling 16 properties -- a dozen in New York and four in Massachusetts. The company -- the nation's largest privately held developer of malls -- also owns the Carousel Center mall in Syracuse. Pyramid plans to expand that property into Destiny U-S-A, a retail, hotel and entertainment. The Syracuse mall won't be put up for sale. Pyramid's holdings include Crossgates Mall in suburban Albany, the Walden Galleria outside Buffalo and Palisades Center just north of New York City.
Footpath as wearisome as mall's ego
When taxpayers are willing to spend that kind of dough to deliver customers to your shopping center - ones who don't require valets or even parking spaces - it seems only polite to make nice. But Park Meadows (motto: If we wanted customers from Denver we wouldn't have built in Douglas County in the first place) has snubbed RTD too long to start being gracious now. When the southeast light-rail line opened in November, riders were met with signs warning "no pedestrian access" to the mall. Only after hundreds of outlaw transit riders made the 15-minute dash along the freeway across several lanes of traffic and through the sprawling parking lot to the mall did the management agree to help pay for shuttle service - if only on weekends. The shuttle made sense. It was just a matter of time before somebody got creamed on Park Meadows Drive and ruined the ambiance.
MIDDAY BUSINESS REPORT: Commerce makes first purchase in Colorado
Kansas City-based Commerce Bancshares Inc. agreed today to buy its Colorado-based namesake bank for $29.5 million. The deal to buy Commerce Bank in Aurora, Colo., a Denver suburb, gives the Kansas City company its first bank in Colorado, though it already calls on customers there. The Colorado bank has $96.8 million in assets. Commerce Bancshares said it intends to keep the bank's management in place, with Jim Lewien remaining as president. The sale requires regulatory approval, which the companies expect will come in June or July. Commerce Bancshares operates in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois and recently acquired its first bank in Oklahoma. It has $15.2 billion in assets. Commerce shares gained 67 cents, or 1.39 percent, to $48.81 in midday trading on Nasdaq.
Your Aurora mall comments
I've shopped at the Aurora Mall for about 25 years and I've never run into any problems. I am concerned about some of the youths that live around the Aurora Mall, so I shop the first hour of any day, when it opens at 10 and I'm out of there at 11. That's how concerned I am sometimes, but I don't want to say negative things about the Aurora Mall because there are so many nice clerks at the Dillard's and that's where I shop a lot. There are concerns with the youth that live around the mall. I think they've done a beautiful job with the Aurora Mall and I just hope they fix some of the problems that involve the youth. -Arlene I just want to let you guys know that I think it's the best thing that the Aurora Mall has done to keep it a family mall and not be harassed by the teenagers there.
Crashes Leave 2 Dead, 1 Facing Charges
TAMPA - Lucia "Lucy" Thibodeaux was a typical teenager. The 16-year-old Alonso High School freshman sang in the school chorus and lived to hang out at the mall with her friends on the weekends. "She loved to go shoe shopping," said her older sister, Nicole. "Oh, my God, she had every pair of Jordans." Late Saturday night, Lucy hopped into a two-door, 2000 model Honda belonging to a friend of a friend. She didn't know him that well, but because his car was low-slung, he could only carry one passenger. A load of people in Pedro Quinones silver car would cause it to bottom out. Lucy's friends got into other cars and they all headed west on the Courtney Campbell Parkway. Robert Lee Kolp also was westbound on the causeway that night, a few seconds behind Quinones.
|
