Carson’s six-decade dream of redeveloping a 157-acre former landfill into a bustling hub of commerce and housing has hit another significant snag, with a yearslong and frequently tumultuous partnership between the city and a developer collapsing this week – putting plans for a luxury outlet mall in doubt.
In its wake, a once-settled feud between the developer and Carson has resurfaced, with both sides exchanging new and old accusations, and threats of legal action.
Developer Cam-Carson, a joint venture between Macerich and Simon Property Group – the latter of which operates dozens of malls in California, including Torrance’s Del Amo Fashion Center – informed Carson that it was pulling out of the project in a Monday, June 3, letter, which the Southern California News Group obtained.
This latest dispute, according to both Cam-Carson and city officials, centers around whether the developer should start paying certain operational and management costs for the 9 acres that would become the luxury outlet mall.
The result, it seems, is that the project is once again in question, though city officials said they remain committed to the project.
“We remain dedicated to the revitalization of our city,” Mayor Lulu Davis-Holmes said in an interview this week, “and will continue to work towards solutions that benefit our residents and the community at large.”
Development deferred
Ever since the CalCompact dump site closed in 1965, Carson officials have dreamed of redeveloping the land.
It is, after all, prime real estate – and massive. The 157 acres sit squarely between the interchange of the 405 and 110 freeways. It even has its own 405 exit off Avalon Boulevard.
But because it’s a former landfill, the ground is toxic and needs to be cleaned up, a costly effort known as remediation.
Over the years, that has been a considerable burden, causing a hope-and-then-despair cycle in Carson as the community was teased with one sparkling project after another only to see…
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