City finalizes agreement for redevelopment of Carousel Mall

Last Wednesday the City of San Bernardino finalized an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with the firms selected to redevelop the 43-acre Carousel Mall site that has been empty and falling into disrepair.

The parties will now enter negotiations to hash out the terms and conditions for the sale and development of the Carousel Mall.

The ENA allows the combined team of Renaissance Downtowns USA and ICO Real Estate Group to provide a proposed development plan for the site.  The redevelopment plan would be the road map to the proposed project and would include any proposed zoning changes and a list of potential users or tenants.

The plan would also need to provide a schedule and associated costs of redevelopment.

“San Bernardino needs to move in the right direction in many ways as it tries to redevelop the mall site,” said Jay Prag, Professor of Economics and Finance at the Drucker School of Management.  “It also needs to grow a reliable job base and that means continuing to welcome logistics, warehouse and distribution which is providing the bulk of new jobs, while also trying to grow the education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and restaurant sectors that all thriving communities need.”

Prag continued, “Of course the City would be in much better shape and more in control of its own destiny had Governor Brown not looted and shuttered all the redevelopment agencies in the State of California.”

Once an agreement has been reached, the next step would be for the City to draw up a Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA).   To move forward all of these steps will need the approval of the City Council.