SIMI VALLEY : City Reaches Pact on Price Club Store

After ironing out the final details, Simi Valley officials on Wednesday announced that a massive Price Club store will be built in western Simi Valley by next spring, bringing 150 to 200 new jobs to the city.

The announcement ended months of negotiations with city officials, who have agreed to pay for more than $500,000 worth of road improvements and development fees that otherwise would be owed by Price-Costco. The concessions were offered as inducements to bring the store to town, said Assistant City Manager Don Penman.

The City Council agreed to change the zoning and waive some development fees at the site, located off of Madera Road, in the hope that the new store will return about $280,000 a year in sales taxes to the city.

The Simi Valley Community Development Agency will reimburse the city government for Price-Costco’s $442,400 share of the cost of building the Madera Road interchange and connector to the Simi Valley Freeway, completed several years ago, Penman said.

The agency also will pay $75,000 for a new traffic signal near the store entrance at Madera Road and Park Center Drive. It also has agreed to cover $50,000 in planning and site analysis fees incurred by the company, Penman said.

Construction of the 160,000-square-foot store on Cochran Street just west of Madera Road is to take four months.

The council first approved a land-use plan for the discount wholesaler in June, 1994, but Price-Costco stalled construction in September, 1994, because market conditions were not favorable.