The City of Monrovia is considering a $1.5M loan to Daylight Limited LLC, a local developer that wants to restore the blighted Santa Fe Depot for a high-end restaurant or café.
The depot is at the intersection of Duarte Road and Myrtle Avenue, smack in the middle of Monrovia Station Square, a $24M TOD built around Metro’s Foothill Gold Line. Daylight is a subsidiary of local developer Samuelson & Fetter, which developed Station Square.
The city's also considering a 55-year lease. City Council expedited the bidding process because $1.5M in funding from the Gold Line Construction Authority will disappear when the agency's dissolved in 2016, according to the Pasadena Star News. The El Niño storm season also is a worry, as heavy rains would further damage the structure. The loan would be forgiven when the project is completed.
In taking the project under consideration, Monrovia Mayor Tom Adams noted this is another example of the city’s commitment to investing in preserving its history. He cited several century-old buildings along Myrtle Avenue in Old Town Monrovia that the city preserved and maintains. Constructed as a sister station to Claremont in 1926, the Spanish-style train depot, which closed in 1972, was a victim to the decline of railway usage in the second half of the 20th Century. The city acquired the depot from the Santa Fe Pacific Corp in 2013. [PSN]
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