City Grants Developers Exclusive Agreement : Ventura: Firms get negotiating rights for entertainment and retail complex. Officials will consider financing a parking structure.

Developers pitching a multiscreen movie theater and retail complex in downtown Ventura were granted exclusive negotiating rights by the Redevelopment Agency on Monday, a deal that gives city staff six months to figure out how--or whether--to finance a parking structure nearby.

The agreements mean that city officials cannot entertain any new proposals in the area between Santa Clara and Main streets and Palm Street and the Figueroa Mall while developers Victor K. Georgino and Weirick Properties draw up their plans.

They also give city planners 180 days to consider how to finance a parking structure of up to 580 spaces--a $5- to $6-million downtown improvement.

Agency members discussed financing options for the parking structure, an amenity that both developers said was critical to the success of their projects.

Under two separate deals approved Monday night, Georgino, of Burbank, was granted exclusive rights to negotiate to build a 70,000-square-foot movie theater of up to 20 screens. Weirick Properties, of Pasadena, was given sole permission to discuss developing a 50,000-square-foot retail complex on the same block.

Earlier this year, the rival developers separately asked a municipal committee to grant them sole negotiating rights to the planned center. But weeks later, the two developers jointly proposed the entertainment complex.

“Movie theaters seem to have a way of pulling people into the area,” Councilman Jack Tingstrom said Monday afternoon. “We have movie theaters on the east end of town, but I think this idea has merit.”

The movie complex would be built fronting Santa Clara Street, opposite the new state Court of Appeal. The retail center would be constructed along Main Street, where the Rendezvous bar and nearby thrift stores now do business.

Terms of the negotiating agreements call for each developer to submit $10,000 “good-faith” deposits to the city.

But the deals approved Monday do nothing to further the construction of a public parking structure nearby. Both developers said they need the city to finance a multilevel parking structure downtown for their projects to be economically feasible.

“When you have a downtown area that needs revitalizing, there are certain projects that need to be built to be the catalyst,” said Georgino, referring to the planned AMC multiplex.

“The investment on the public side would be parking,” he said. “This structure would not only serve me, it would serve all of downtown. It’s a public investment in the downtown area, and that’s what redevelopment is for.”

City analysts are preparing a list of ways to finance the parking garage, which the developers suggest be built on the northeast corner of Santa Clara and Palm streets. The recommendations must be considered by the Redevelopment Agency before the negotiating agreements expire on Aug. 13.

Some probable funding options include using Redevelopment Agency money, assessing nearby property owners or issuing bonds that could be repaid with revenue from the garage.

“I support the concept of providing parking for long-term redevelopment,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said before Monday’s meeting. “This will benefit all areas of downtown within a probably six- to eight-block distance.”

Councilman Gregory L. Carson said he supports charging local businesses at least a portion of the cost.

“It’s not new that businesses have to pay into parking,” he said. “If we want to move forward and make downtown what we think it can be, a parking structure or two is essential.”