Parking garage pact helps plans for theater

Space for 400 vehicles to be built in North Park

By Deborah Ensor
STAFF WRITER

January 29, 2003

Plans to redevelop the old North Park theater moved closer to reality yesterday when the city agreed to work with Five Star Parking on a $7.5 million parking structure.

The City Council, acting as the redevelopment agency, voted unanimously to sign an agreement with Five Star for a parking garage at 29th Street and North Park Way, behind Union Bank.

The agreement allows for the city's redevelopment agency to contribute up to $2.8 million to the project. Five Star will pay the remaining costs to build and run the structure, which the city will lease for 25 years.

It's been a dream in North Park for the past decade to bring live theater back to the area. After numerous failed proposals from other developers, Arnold "Bud" Fischer signed an agreement with the city almost three years ago. Lyric Opera San Diego will be the operator.

Fischer's agreement with the city requires that the 400 parking spaces needed to support the theater must be available by September 2004 to be ready for the theater's scheduled opening in January 2005.

Otherwise, Fischer would not be required to use the building as a theater and could develop it for any use permitted by current zoning.

The North Park Project Area Committee, the community-level redevelopment group, supports the renovation of the theater as well as adding the 400 parking spaces. But the group preferred an option that would include housing and more retail space.

Councilwoman Toni Atkins, however, said the time it would take to explore more options might mean losing the opportunity to develop the theater.

"This is a vision we need to realize. At some point we need to stop planning and start implementing," she said. "If we were able to do this in Hillcrest a decade and a half ago, we would have been able to solve some of the problems we have today."

The proposal from Five Star, of which Fischer is also an investor, is for a five-level, 5,000-square-foot garage with 400 spaces and ground-level retail shops.

Yesterday's action brings to fruition months of work by the community and the city. Hundreds of community members have spent hours haggling over options for parking for the theater.

The theater brings hope to the community not only of plays and ballet but of theater patrons spending time and money at neighborhood shops and restaurants.

Though many support the theater and the parking garage, there are some critics.

Resident Martin Chevalier, also a member of the Project Area Committee, does not approve of using all of North Park's redevelopment funds for one project. If the theater isn't successful, he said, the parking garage will be a waste of money.

"It will become our homeless shelter," he said. "We will be left with a cavern."

Deborah Ensor: (619) 542-4574; deborah.ensor@uniontrib.com

Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.