Council Approves Multiscreen Cinema in Effort to Revive Downtown : Redevelopment: City officials hope the complex will revive an area that’s become a commercial ghost town.

DOWNEY — A developer has won city approval to build a $9-million multiscreen cinema that officials hope will revive a downtown that has become a commercial ghost town.

George Krikorian, who owns eight theater complexes in Southern California, plans to build a 10- to 12-screen complex in Downey with substantial city help. Krikorian said he will invest $10 million for plans and construction of the 2,500-seat theater and a four-story, 355-space free public parking structure.

The city, which paid the county $1.3 million for the project site in 1991, will sell the land to Krikorian for $1. Officials also agreed to refund to Krikorian the city’s share of property taxes generated by the theater. It estimates this rebate to be worth about $1.42 million over the 30-year life of the agreement.

“This could be a catalyst for revitalizing the downtown area,” Community Development Director Art Rangel said. “It’s an important time in Downey’s history. (The theater) is necessary for the very survival . . . of the core of this community.”

Dusty for-rent signs are taped to vacant storefronts throughout historic downtown, located northwest of Firestone Boulevard and Downey Avenue.

The City Council approved the deal after a public hearing that lasted more than five hours and drew about 100 residents. Supporters of the project outnumbered critics by more than two-to-one.

“This will be a great anchor, not only for downtown, but for all of Downey,” said Angelo Cardona, a downtown merchant.

“I want my kids to see a Downey that’s going to grow, not a Downey that’s going to die,” said Rob Utermohlen, who grew up in Downey and recently returned to the city with his family.

The speakers also included critics, including some who fear the theater will attract crime.

“This will create more problems than it’s worth,” resident Walter Gribben said. “The gangbangers will cruise into town. This will give them a legitimate reason to be here.”

Others criticized the mechanics of the deal.

“You’re giving away the entire center of Downey for $1,” said Michael Sullivan, president of Downey Cares, a local citizens group.

Parking Commissioner Guy Sterner said the city should have considered other developments besides a theater. “Once this project is built, you won’t have a second chance to look at other projects you could have had,” Sterner said.

About 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, the council voted 3-0 to approve the project, which consumed a year of negotiations with Krikorian. Mayor Diane P. Boggs and Councilwomen Barbara J. Riley and Joyce L. Lawrence backed the development agreement. Councilmen Robert S. Brazelton and Gary P. McCaughan abstained from the discussion and the vote because they own property near the proposed development.

Although no council member opposed the project, Boggs said she had reservations.

“You’re daydreamers if you think we’re going to make any money,” Boggs said at the hearing. “There will be a serious shortage of parking and I have serious concerns about that. But it’s clear the vast majority (of the community) is willing to pay the price, so I’ll support it. But I really don’t believe in it.”

The theater would be built on the location of the former county courthouse on 2nd Street, between La Reina Avenue and New Street. The city hopes to close that stretch of 2nd Street to automobile traffic and make a pedestrian mall as part of the downtown revival. The city plans to spend $50,000 to construct the mall. Krikorian, a Redondo Beach-based developer, has also agreed to pay $30,000 to help construct the mall.

The entire project, however, will remain tentative until Krikorian finds private financing for the construction. The agreement will expire in a year if he cannot locate an investor.

Krikorian hopes to break ground by February, 1994, and complete the project less than a year later.

The city hopes to profit by claiming sales tax from movie tickets and by generating more traffic and business downtown.

Competition for the theater will include the theaters at Lakewood Mall, about six miles away, and the cinema at the Los Cerritos Mall, about five miles away.

Officials said that the developer is getting a good deal, but they insist that Downey also does well by the agreement. They noted that few residents have much reason to go downtown anymore.

The downtown declined as a business hub after the construction of nearby Stonewood Mall in 1958. The city’s other commercial areas are along Firestone and Lakewood boulevards.

“I look out my window at an empty parking lot,” said John Sims, a downtown Downey physician. “If we don’t do something, we can kiss downtown goodby.”