10 Firms Submit Proposals for Site of Aborted Disney Project

Ten companies, including a major Southern California shopping mall developer, have submitted proposals for the development of a 41-acre lot in downtown Burbank, formerly slated for a $611-million retail-entertainment complex to be built by the Walt Disney Co.

Burbank Community Development Department officials were just beginning to sift through the voluminous proposals over the weekend, and said they did not have details regarding specific aspects of the plans. Officials are expected to start analyzing the proposals and begin narrowing them down.

“I’m just opening them now,” Susan Boyle, the city’s assistant community development director, said Saturday. “I wanted to get a head start on the week, but I don’t really have any details yet.”

Disney Abandoned Project

Solicitations for development of the site were sent to numerous developers nationwide in April after Disney abandoned plans to build its large-scale project. The withdrawal came when the cost of the project became too expensive.

Among the developers who paid $10,000 to Burbank for processing of plans was the Alexander Haagen Co., which Boyle said was one of the largest developers of retail shopping malls in Southern California.

Haagen is building the $120-million Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza shopping mall and the $20-million Gardena Gateway Shopping Center near the Harbor Freeway.

Other Los Angeles-based developers submitting proposals for the site included Samuel K. Freshman, the Schurgin Development Co., and K&F; Development Co., which built the successful wholesale Price Club chain.

Also, the Burbank-based firms of Christiansen-Geiger, Burbank Development Co., and Burbank Commerce Center submitted plans. Other companies expressing interest included Triple Five Development Enterprises of Canada, T&S; Development of Riverside, and Overton, Moore & Associates of Carson.

Boyle said the city will make a decision on the most desirable proposals by Aug. 23. Finalists would be required to submit more detailed plans showing layouts, traffic circulation and financing.

Those proposals would be due by the end of November. The city would make a decision in January.

The site is generally bordered by Burbank Boulevard to the north, Magnolia Boulevard to the south, Third Street on the east and the Golden State Freeway on the west.

Before Disney’s pullout, the Ernest Hahn Co., a prominent retail developer, failed in its attempt to build a shopping center on the same site.