By Tammye McDuff
Cerritos held their annual State of the City luncheon hosted by the Cerritos Regional Chamber of Commerce at the Performing Arts Center this past Wednesday.
Cerritos City Manager, Art Gallucci gave an update to the condition of the City stating, “well I have some not so good news and I have some great news.”
“The bad news,” notes Gallucci, “are the funds taken from the City by the state of California.” These monies include non-parking fines, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, highway carrier fees, and inventory exemption reimbursements from 1984 to 1997 totaling $633,552.
The Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund [ERAF] shift totals $4,528,451; the supplemental ERAF shift from 2009 to 2010 of $11,812,007; form the year 2010 to 2011 – $2,326.350 and from the low/mod housing fund 2012-2013 $10,092,815; giving a grand total of $29,393,175 monies the City did not receive.
The redevelopment dissolution litigation became effective February 2012 with a total of 190 lawsuits being filed against the State related to the dissolution of redevelopment. The City of Cerritos is a plaintiff in three of the lawsuits and is a real party to two additional lawsuits.
“The good news folks is that retail sales are recovering from the recession,” noted Gallucci. The overall retail sales in Cerritos are an estimate $2.722 billion for the fiscal year 2014-2015, with the Cerritos Auto Square set to improve by 8.7 percent for 2014-2015 year and increase another 3.5 percent in the fiscal year 2015-2016. The automotive sales trend has seen new car registrations increase by 8.0 percent and are expected to exceed 1.9 million units in 2015 for the State. Nationwide, 16.5 million cars were sold in the United States in 2014. From January to May of 2015, Cerritos Auto Square sold 21,875 of those vehicles.
Total retail sales in Cerritos for 2014-2015 are projected at $2,722,969,000, averaging daily sales of $7,460,189. The Los Cerritos Shopping Center, with 1.3 million square feet of retail service, saw $704 in sales per square feet in 2014.
The Center employed 3,878 people; that is a breakdown of 479 management employees, 774 full time employees, 1,750 part time employees and 864 seasonal. Sears Holdings Corporation and Macerich Company recently formed a joint venture that will develop 20 acres of the Sears property at the Los Cerritos Center. New stores expected are UNIQLO, opening May 22; opening this summer will be The Art of Shaving, Kiehl’s since 1851, Pandora, Adidas, and Shoe Palace.
Coming fall of 2015 expect to see the opening of The Cheesecake Factory and DICK’s Sporting Goods. Harkins Theatres will be set to open in the spring of 2016. Remodeled stores Ben Bridge Jewelers, Things Remembered and Reflection will reopen summer of 2015, also retailers Motherhood Maternity and Love Culture will return this summer and Pac Sun will reopen September/October of 2015.
Retail rent revenue for the City is an estimated $6,255,250. Projected revenue from the State for “no/low” property tax is an estimated $2,800,000; vehicle license fee revenue, paid by residents to the State, $4,900,00. The proposed City operating budget is $84,400,000 and the amount of City operating budget funded by the City is $76,700,000.
The annual operating budget has been reduced by approximately $11.5 million from 2008-2009 to fiscal year 2014-2015. This savings was achieved from not filling more than 48 City positions totaling approximately $5.4 million per year. The additional savings has been achieved through operating expenditure reductions.
The drought is a major factor for the City of Trees. Cerritos has one of the largest potable reservoir systems in California with a 22 mile underground loop. Since 1988 when the system was constructed, the use of recycled water has saved 11.8 billion gallons of drinking water. The city’s recycled water system has the capacity to provide up to 4,000 acre feet of recycled water annually which translates into 1 billion gallons of water per year. The Cerritos City Council recently approved a proposal to construct a recycled water pipeline originated in the City and continuing through portions of Lakewood and Cypress to service Forest lawn Memorial park. Once completed, the project will result in an annual savings of 81,462,857 gallons of drinking water.
Many new retail establishments can be expected within the next two years: Plaza 183 has signed contractual agreements with 24 hour fitness, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, The Habit, Lena Gull
Blaze Pizza, EasyLife, Saks 5th Avenue and Nordstrom Rack.
Construction continues at Villa Grande office park on Norwalk Boulevard, Plaza Walk condominium construction will begin summer of 2015.