City eyes 2 companies to revamp vacant mall
San Bernardino leaders late Wednesday chose the team of Renaissance Downtowns USA and ICO Real Estate Group to redevelop the 43-acre Carousel Mall site.
They expect to affirm the move at a subsequent City Council meeting.
Once voted on, City Manager Rob Field will have six months to return to elected officials with the framework of an exclusive negotiation agreement.
Such a pact could take up to 18 months to finalize.
Council members Theodore Sanchez, Sandra Ibarra, Fred Shorett, Ben Reynoso, Kimberly Calvin and Damon Alexander favored the decision. Councilman Juan Figueroa was opposed.
Having partnered before on
other large-scale redevelopment projects, Renaissance and ICO have proposed converting the Carousel Mall site into a lively downtown hub by creating a more walkable, smallblock structure where districts within the corridor have distinct characteristics.
The two intend to plant thousands of trees in the area; build up to 3,500 new residential units; include entertainment, commercial and office uses; and craft a Riverwalk that loops through the new development. Buildings will have green rooftop designs, with high-efficiency heating and/or cooling systems, the developers have said.
Beyond the mall, the companies want to incorporate other downtown areas into an expanded redevelopment project.
“We want to create a new market unlike any other market in the Inland Empire,” ICO principal Jian Torkan told council members in January when his team presented its plan for the property. “We don't want to be like Redlands or Rancho Cucamonga. We want to be better. We want to create a new urban lifestyle in a suburban market.
“This will not be easy, but it is achievabl,. If it was easy, it would have been done already.”
Though the council has opted to move forward with Renaissance and ICO as master developer, certain members have expressed concern over how the companies would finance the long-awaited project. Representatives with the development team have said they will pursue myriad state and federal grants to bring their vision to fruition.
Field called the group's financing plan “evolving” Wednesday.
Sanchez, meanwhile, worried the project would be too big for one developer.
“I hope I'm wrong about my instincts,” Sanchez, whose 1st Ward includes the site, said by phone Thursday. “Our institutional memory on the council is too short. … People forget there have been several attempts at getting a developer to take on this huge project and it's failed.
“You can go to the property now and look at it and it looks no better than it did five, eight years ago.”
Echoing several public comments Wednesday, Reynoso stressed the importance of including a community benefits agreement in any pact between the city and the two developers.
In January, advocates and organizers said they were disappointed with the team's lack of community engagement as it crafted its proposal.
Reynoso was more direct Wednesday, saying he would ask the city manager to “hold them to the fire” if developers fail to put forth a CBA that includes measures to keep housing affordable and ensures local hires and minority business owners are involved in the project.
“This council is not playing,” Reynoso said. “This community is not playing.”
Ahead of Wednesday's meeting, city staff members recommended elected officials reject both bids to redevelop the Carousel Mall property and instead incorporate its future into a larger revitalization effort in downtown San Bernardino.
Nearly 60 recorded public comments — most of which addressed the highly anticipated project — were played into the record.
A majority of those on the topic supported moving forward with Renaissance and ICO as master developer.
“With both of the proposals,
there were good things,” Figueroa said ahead of the vote. “For me, I think both were lacking something really big, something that really says downtown. Not to take away from the good stuff they did have, but I think they were still missing that venue thing that brings people downtown.”
San Bernardino leaders rebooted plans to overhaul the Carousel Mall site about two years ago.
In December 2019, Shanghai Construction Group America, Renaissance Downtowns USA and ICO Real Estate Group emerged as finalists from a field of nearly a dozen developers vying for a contract to revamp the former gem of the city's central corridor.
Council members subsequently commissioned the three companies to craft comprehensive plans to redevelop
the property.
Renaissance, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, and ICO, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, pooled their resources to fashion a single plan.
The finalists shared their proposals with the City Council on Jan. 27.
Last week, two council members who were not on the dais when the three companies were selected for the mall project publicly questioned Mayor John Valdivia's alleged dealings with SCG America, which has a subsidiary linked to a wide-ranging, pay-to-play scheme in Los Angeles.
That evening, Calvin urged city officials and city counsel to investigate the Garden Grove company and its subsidiaries for any connections to San Bernardino leaders.
Valdivia has denied all allegations of impropriety.