City to Purchase Old Shopping Center

PALMDALE — Hoping to replace a downtown eyesore with senior citizen housing, the City Council has voted to spend $2.64 million to buy most of an old fire-damaged shopping center that will likely be demolished.

As directors of the city’s Redevelopment Agency, the council agreed to buy most of the Palmdale Plaza, which was built in the 1950s as the town’s first major shopping center. More recently, however, the center, located at Sierra Highway and East Avenue Q-6, has deteriorated as key tenants closed or relocated.

Three fires, all of suspicious origin, have damaged some of its buildings over the past two years. A few small stores remain open in one portion of the center.

Councilman Jim Root said Friday that the purchase of Palmdale Plaza is a key first step toward revitalizing the city’s aging downtown area.

“It says the City Council is taking a deep, hard look at the downtown area,” Root said. “We’re very concerned about how to deal with the blight in that area.”

A local clergyman asked the council Thursday to preserve one of the buildings, a former J.C. Penney store, for use as a shelter for the homeless.

But Root said that probably can’t be done because hazardous materials such as asbestos are believed to be present in the old buildings. He said the structures, which also include a former Woolworth store and a closed Security Pacific Bank branch, will probably be razed.

To purchase the property, the city is using redevelopment funds that must be spent to promote housing for people of low and moderate income. The city plans to build a senior citizen housing complex on the site.

The council authorized city staff to complete the purchase of seven parcels without exceeding set financial limits.