Santa Fe Springs : Purchase for Edison Site

The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, approved an agreement last week with Oltmans Investment Co. to purchase a 9.5-acre site at Smith and Geary avenues for $3.3 million.

When the site is acquired by the agency--once remedial soils work and the installation of utilities have been done--it will be sold to Southern California Edison Co. for the relocation of its facility on Washington Boulevard, said Richard Weaver, director of planning and development. The agency has negotiated with Edison for almost a year to move its facility so that the Washington Boulevard site can be sold and developed for commercial use.

Edison is in the process of selling the site near Appledale Avenue, which is in the city’s newly approved Washington Boulevard Redevelopment project area. The project aims to revitalize the commercial businesses along the heavily traveled corridor. The agency offered Edison an incentive--full reimbursement of all sales taxes produced on the site for the first three years--if the company sells the parcel to a commercial business that generates sales tax, Weaver said.