San Gabriel Valley : AUSSIES IN ARCADIA

Arcadia city officials will be able to trumpet a massive new restaurant when it unveils its new downtown later this year, but it will be paying a pretty penny.

The Outback Steakhouse, an Australian-themed restaurant chain, recently bought the land for $600,000, $1.3 million less than the city paid for the property five years ago. The 340-seat restaurant, with a wood-frame interior decorated with boomerangs and photos from Down Under, is scheduled to open at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Huntington Drive in December.

“We weren’t thrilled with the loss, but the lot would have gone empty, and we wouldn’t have had income in the interim,” said Arcadia Councilwoman Barbara Kuhn. “It’s sort of the reality of today’s market.”