A developer is set to close escrow on the San Fernando Valley Swap Meet and, if all goes according to plan, he intends to move it three miles away and replace it with a big-box retail center sometime in 2003. Randy Roth, owner of Sherman Oaks-based Roth Properties, said he has purchased the 35-acre site at Arroyo Avenue and Glenoaks Boulevard for $28 million. He plans to build an alternate location in Sun Valley for the outdoor marketplace, not far from where roughly 1,000 vendors have gathered thrice weekly to sell their wares baby clothes, power tools, second-hand furniture, herbs, fresh fruits and vegetables for the last three decades. Roth said he has long sought a way to buy the 420,000-square-foot lot in order to attract a retail development that would help revitalize the otherwise mostly industrial area surrounding the swap meet. “This is a very underutilized site and a marketplace that just hasn’t had the opportunity to grow,” said Roth. Roth said he also has purchased a 40-acre swath of land in Sun Valley where he intends to build a new facility for the vendors that will be partially covered with a roof and have air conditioning and permanent restrooms. Escrow could close on that property as early as next month, he said. The restrooms at the current swap meet open Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from dawn until about 2 p.m. are portables. And, save for canvass stall covers and makeshift walls made from ubiquitous blue plastic tarps, there is no protection for the vendors or their customers from inclement weather, including the heat of the brutal north Valley summertime sun. “My family has been in that part of the Valley for years, and I was born here and raised here,” said Roth. “So we are being very proactive. We are 100-percent committed to presenting the city with a project that will not displace the current vendors and offering them a better facility with better services.” San Fernando Mayor Cindy Montanez said the swap meet generates about $500,000 in sales tax revenue annually for the city, which it would lose once the swap meet shuts down. Because it’s privately owned, the city has no real control over what is built there should the land be sold, but Montanez said the city supports Roth’s project because, although a retail center would generate significant revenue for the city, the chief concern is for the vendors. “This is a project that we have to be very careful about,” said Montanez. “We have to make it a very efficient process for both sides and we absolutely cannot move forward with the new project until we know that the vendors are up and running and taken care of. And it’s our understanding that Mr. Roth intends to provide a much higher quality facility for the vendors on the alternate site.” Roth said he could not disclose the exact location of the alternate site because doing so would threaten to stall the project. He did say the new site would be built before the existing swap meet is shut down, disrupting operations as little as possible. “There may be a temporary dip in business, but it shouldn’t be longstanding,” Roth said. Roth also said his plan calls for giving vendors relocation assistance and, although he declined to give details of how it would work, a program designed to help the vendors eventually purchase the swap meet for themselves. “The benefits the vendors are receiving from the relocation far outweigh any temporary setbacks,” said Roth. “I’m reluctant to give out any specifics of the relocation plan because it is fragile and we are working to fit many pieces together, so I don’t want to jeopardize it.” Roth said he intends to hold meetings with the vendors to inform them of the plans but, as of Tuesday, neither the swap meet’s on-site manager, Leticia Calderon, its security director, Bill Moreno, nor the vendors themselves appeared to have any knowledge of the takeover. “We’ve been down this road before,” said Moreno, “but this is the first time we’ve heard about this particular plan.” Roth’s company is also preparing to build a 650,000-square-foot industrial complex on the long-shuttered Brandford Landfill in Arleta, which could spur growth in that portion of a long-neglected part of the Northeast Valley. This is not the first time the swap meet, which typically gets about 2,000 customers through the gates on the days it’s open, has been on the market. In May of 2000, Los Angeles-based Regency Realty Corp. attempted to buy the property from the owners, Richard Dunn and William Hannon (who is now deceased), for a big-box retail project. Word of Regency’s pending project prompted a slew of protests by vendors that coincided with three bomb threats made to the city of San Fernando. Dunn and Hannon initially signed an option with Regency to sell the property, also for $28 million, but when Regency said it was only willing to pay $16.5 million for the parcel, the deal fell through. In addition, the Regency deal included no solid plans to move the swap meet. This time, said Roth, the fate of the vendors is being taken seriously. Jose Lopez, a Lancaster resident who has sold second-hand goods at the swap meet for several years, said he is not opposed to relocation, as long as it’s to a better facility and there is no downtime. “What are you going to do?” Lopez asked. “All we ask for is some time. Time is the biggest factor here.” According to Roth, escrow on the current site is expected to close sometime in late December. He said it will likely be another year before the swap meet is shut down and the vendors are moved. He said he also plans to set up a free shuttle service at the new retail center to offer customers familiar with the current location a way to get to the new one, but also to provide a link between what he envisions as being two shopping/gathering places for the city and its residents. “The thing we are aware of that other (developers) may have forgotten is the fact that this swap meet is a local tradition,” said Roth. “We want to take care of those people who are used to coming to this site, but we also see it as a way to provide the city with a two-pronged retail experience.”