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City pulls rug out from under store
Brand Boulevard carpet seller is being forced to move yet again to make room for the Americana.
By Ryan Vaillancourt
DOWNTOWN — The Glendale City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, authorized city attorneys on Tuesday to initiate legal proceedings to force a South Brand Boulevard carpet store to vacate a city-owned building that is slated for demolition.
The city has already relocated the Great Carpet Company once: The 28-year Glendale business was among several that were forced to move in 2005 from spots in what is now the Americana at Brand site.
The carpet company and a Rite-Aid pharmacy moved to a city-owned building across the street from the Americana with state-mandated relocation assistance from the city, City Manager Jim Starbird said. That relocation package for the carpet company includes not paying rent for the nearly three years it has been in its present location, said Phil Lanzafame, director of the city’s Development Services Department.
But in taking up their new digs, both tenants agreed that the location would be for a maximum of two years, Lanzafame said.
The building at 218 to 222 S. Brand Blvd. has long been slated for demolition to make room for a 50-foot-wide pedestrian passageway that will link the Americana with the planned Central Park renovation project behind the Central Library, Lanzafame said.
Rite Aid is slated to move into the Americana next month, but the Great Carpet Company, which was granted an extension past the original two-year agreement until now, has been unable to find a new location, store owner Hovsep Kaprielian said.
“We’ve been looking around on a daily basis for a new place in Glendale,” Kaprielian said. “It’s not our unwillingness to move, because we’d like to move.”
But in order to uproot his carpet store for the second time in almost three years, Kaprielian says that perhaps more important than finding a new space is that he needs more financial help from the city.
All of the funds the city contributed to help with the move were reinvested into the store, he said.
“This place was a junkyard,” he said of the 6,000-square-foot facility, which includes a showroom and rear warehouse for inventory. “All of the money from the city, it was consumed to fix the place . . . . We expect and we anticipate that the city will be able to assist us again.”
But city officials say they went above and beyond state relocation regulations in helping the Great Carpet Company with its first move and that the city is not legally required to help again.
As part of its relocation package, the city has not only allowed the company free rent since it moved in, Development Services has also tried to help the company find a new location, Lanzafame said.
“I think the point is the agency has made every accommodation that we can and at some point you have to say that this is no longer available to you,” Lanzafame said.
The proposed pedestrian passageway is in its initial planning phases and it is not yet known whether the entire building will have to be demolished, he said.
The northern half of the structure, which currently houses Ride Aid, may be left standing, but the city is certain that the southern half needs to go. The city plans to demolish that portion of the building “as soon as the tenant vacates,” Lanzafame said.
But the wrecking ball could be at least two months away, as the city has expressed willingness to extend its deadline by 60 days if Kaprielian finds a new location by the end of April, Kaprielian said.
If not, city attorneys could proceed with legal action to force the Great Carpet Company out, but taking the issue to court is seen as a last resort, Starbird said.
“We’d still much prefer not to have to go to court,” he said.
RYAN VAILLANCOURT covers business, politics and the foothills. He may be reached at (818) 637-3215 or by e-mail at ryan.vaillancourt@latimes.com.
The city has already relocated the Great Carpet Company once: The 28-year Glendale business was among several that were forced to move in 2005 from spots in what is now the Americana at Brand site.
The carpet company and a Rite-Aid pharmacy moved to a city-owned building across the street from the Americana with state-mandated relocation assistance from the city, City Manager Jim Starbird said. That relocation package for the carpet company includes not paying rent for the nearly three years it has been in its present location, said Phil Lanzafame, director of the city’s Development Services Department.
But in taking up their new digs, both tenants agreed that the location would be for a maximum of two years, Lanzafame said.
The building at 218 to 222 S. Brand Blvd. has long been slated for demolition to make room for a 50-foot-wide pedestrian passageway that will link the Americana with the planned Central Park renovation project behind the Central Library, Lanzafame said.
Rite Aid is slated to move into the Americana next month, but the Great Carpet Company, which was granted an extension past the original two-year agreement until now, has been unable to find a new location, store owner Hovsep Kaprielian said.
“We’ve been looking around on a daily basis for a new place in Glendale,” Kaprielian said. “It’s not our unwillingness to move, because we’d like to move.”
But in order to uproot his carpet store for the second time in almost three years, Kaprielian says that perhaps more important than finding a new space is that he needs more financial help from the city.
All of the funds the city contributed to help with the move were reinvested into the store, he said.
“This place was a junkyard,” he said of the 6,000-square-foot facility, which includes a showroom and rear warehouse for inventory. “All of the money from the city, it was consumed to fix the place . . . . We expect and we anticipate that the city will be able to assist us again.”
But city officials say they went above and beyond state relocation regulations in helping the Great Carpet Company with its first move and that the city is not legally required to help again.
As part of its relocation package, the city has not only allowed the company free rent since it moved in, Development Services has also tried to help the company find a new location, Lanzafame said.
“I think the point is the agency has made every accommodation that we can and at some point you have to say that this is no longer available to you,” Lanzafame said.
The proposed pedestrian passageway is in its initial planning phases and it is not yet known whether the entire building will have to be demolished, he said.
The northern half of the structure, which currently houses Ride Aid, may be left standing, but the city is certain that the southern half needs to go. The city plans to demolish that portion of the building “as soon as the tenant vacates,” Lanzafame said.
But the wrecking ball could be at least two months away, as the city has expressed willingness to extend its deadline by 60 days if Kaprielian finds a new location by the end of April, Kaprielian said.
If not, city attorneys could proceed with legal action to force the Great Carpet Company out, but taking the issue to court is seen as a last resort, Starbird said.
“We’d still much prefer not to have to go to court,” he said.
RYAN VAILLANCOURT covers business, politics and the foothills. He may be reached at (818) 637-3215 or by e-mail at ryan.vaillancourt@latimes.com.
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