RHE to Consider More Office Uses at Mall

The Rolling Hills Estates City Council will consider Tuesday a resolution approving a master conditional use permit that would allow the Promenade on the Peninsula mall to allow up to 50,000 additional square feet of medical office or tutorial uses on the second and third floors.

According to a city staff report, the 370,672-square-foot mall currently has 31,858 square feet of medical office and tutorial uses on Levels 2 and 3. Right now, each time a new non-retail business wants to move in, it must obtain a conditional use permit from the city.

If the plan to be considered Tuesday is approved, such business will operate under a master conditional use permit. The agreement will last five years.

Because medical offices and education centers don't pay sales tax, a city subcommittee brokered an agreement with the mall's owners where the city would receive $1 per square foot dedicated to medical office and tutorial uses annually, with a minimum of $5,000 and maximum of $50,000 per year.

The mall, which has undergone multiple name and ownership changes over the past two decades, has seen numerous stores leave, and about 60,000 square feet of the mall is empty, according to the Daily Breeze.

City Manager Doug Prichard told the newspaper that municipal sales taxes bring in about $1.2 million annually.

"That center was intended to be a retail center, but the experience is showing us that perhaps it was never intended to be," Mayor Frank Zerunyan told reporter Nick Green. "Major stores came and have gone and, frankly, I don't blame them. Demographically, we have the buyers, but for whatever reason, for those larger stores, it's just not working. "

The Rolling Hills Estates City Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at city hall, located at 4045 Palos Verdes Drive North.