West Covina : $20-Million Project Gets OK

Construction will begin early next year on Gateway Corporate Center, a $20-million office and commercial complex in the city’s central business district, under a development agreement approved this week by the City Council.

The complex, to be built by Development Research Corp. at Garvey Avenue South and Vincent Avenue, will feature a nine-story office building, a restaurant, an eight-screen movie theater and a parking structure for 635 cars.

The complex is expected to create about 800 jobs and to generate $200,000 annually in property-tax revenue and more than $30,000 in sales-tax revenue from restaurant meals and food sold in the theater, said Chet Yoshizaki, the city’s redevelopment manager.

Council members, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency and the city Parking Authority, voted 4 to 0 to approve the project. Councilman Forest Tennant, who owns property near the proposed project, abstained to avoid a possible conflict of interest.

Under the agreement, the city will buy the project site, currently owned by Unocal Corp. and Imperial Savings, and resell it to the developer, Yoshizaki said. The redevelopment agency may contribute as much as $900,000 toward the purchase of the land, he said.