Shopping Center

The City Council last week approved a development plan to clear the way for a proposed shopping center at Atlantic and Clarkson avenues by Rodeo-West Co., a Los Angeles-based firm. The proposed center--within a designated Redevelopment Project Area undergoing review and adoption proceedings--was exempted from a moratorium placed on project area sites in August.

A 42-acre shopping center, anchored by a home improvement store and a 10-screen movie theater, appears nearer to approval at Weir Canyon Road and the Riverside Freeway. The City Council voted Tuesday night to hold a public hearing to change the zoning of the land from industrial to commercial, clearing the way for the shopping center.

Chabad of the Conejo will go on the road to Westlake Village to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, bringing a mobile sukkah, or hut, to the Promenade at Westlake shopping center at 1 p.m. Oct. 19 and then on to the Hughes shopping center at 3 p.m. "Sukkot is the celebration of the Jewish people's security in the wilderness when they escaped Egypt," said Rabbi Moshe Bryski of Chabad.

Harry Newman Jr., co-owner of the Mall of Orange, will join the Orange Taxpayers Assn. for a town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss the future of the shopping center. Anticipating new revenue from Wal-Mart, which won approval this month to open a store in the mall, Newman plans to redesign the shopping center inside and out. Residents who attend the meeting will be encouraged to suggest new names for the mall and to comment on the proposed designs. The meeting will be at 7 p.m.

The Rossmoor Shopping Center will host a free health fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The commercial center's Health Fair Expo '97, with 90 volunteers from both medical and nonmedical fields, gives adults an opportunity to get free screenings for a variety of health problems. A test for prostate specific antigen for males 40 years and older, and blood chemistry profiles--$25 for each service--also will be available.

The city has been awarded a $1-million federal grant to build a new shopping center--the second-largest commercial project in Maywood history--on the northwest corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Slauson Avenue. In addition to the grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Maywood also will use $1.

Federal funding of $2 million has been awarded to the county Community Development Commission through the Urban Development Action Grant for construction of a shopping center in the Willowbrook area. The $23.5-million, 172,950-square-foot Willowbrook Center, to be located at Willowbrook Avenue and 119th Street, represents the culmination of a 10-year effort to provide neighborhood shopping in that area.

Construction has begun on River Oaks, an $11-million shopping center at the northeast corner of Magic Mountain and McBean parkways in Valencia. The center, a development of the Valencia Co., will be the community's largest to date, with 281,000 square feet of retail space on 22.6 acres, and will house two department stores new to Santa Clarita Valley. Architect Charles Kober Associates of Los Angeles has designed the project in a Spanish style with stucco exteriors and red tile roofs.

Passco Real Estate Enterprises Inc. bought Lancaster Commerce Center at Antelope Valley Highway 14 and Avenue K in Lancaster for $34 million from Lancaster Commerce Center California Partnership. The property is a 303,367-square-foot neighborhood retail center on 55 acres. Also, Passco sold a 60,230-square-foot portion of the 105,239-square-foot Lincoln Plaza shopping center at Lincoln and Van Buren in Riverside to Lincoln Investments Trust for $6.5 million.

A teenager was in critical condition and a man was hospitalized after a shooting Thursday night outside a Carson shopping center, authorities said. The victims, who were not identified, were shot outside the South Bay Pavilion about 8:40 p.m. after a confrontation, Sgt. Pierre Nadeau said. Although the center was filled with people, there was little traffic outside on Leapwood Avenue, Nadeau said. The victims were reluctant to identify their attackers, he said.