By Julie BUTCHER

After 14 years of advocacy and fight, there might be a glimmer of hope and good news for activists, community members and the Friends of Rockhaven.

At a special afternoon council meeting this week, City of Glendale staff recommended entering into a six-month exclusive negotiating agreement with Avalon Investment Company, one of the companies that bid on the redevelopment of Rockhaven back in 2016.

Local historian Elise Jordan, author of the 2018 book “Rockhaven Sanitarium: The Legacy of Agnes Richards,” summarized the history of the property at a council meeting in December.

“This property was opened in 1923 by a nurse named Agnes Richards. This was just three years after women won the right to vote, so that’s pretty extraordinary that a woman was able to open a business like this in our own community. Agnes was a pioneering businesswoman, a part of our community; she was active in local clubs and sat on the board of a bank. She hired women to take care of women, allowing local women a career path, decades before the women’s movement. She believed in investing in both the inside and outside of the property, making the inside comforting and healing and investing in beautifying the landscaping outside for the community looking in, while providing cutting-edge mental healthcare no one else was doing. This is Hollywood history and women’s history.”

In 2008, the City of Glendale purchased the 3.5-acre property for $8.25 million to prevent its demolition. The discussion, at the time, centered on making Rockhaven a park; however, due to the economic downturn, there were no funds available for that. Since 2008, Friends of Rockhaven continued its watch over the property, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The buildings have been untouched with few, if any, repairs, but the Friends of Rockhaven continue to promote the property and work to get the story out on the historic parcel.

In 2014 the City issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) soliciting proposals for the development of Rockhaven. It received 10 submissions in response. In 2016 the City entered into an agreement with Gangi Development to “develop Rockhaven as a boutique lifestyle commercial center and park.” That proposal called for the rehabilitation of all of the property’s historic buildings, walls and gates “except for Building L.” Ultimately, negotiations with Gangi were unsuccessful.

Recently the City re-initiated discussions with Avalon that confirmed its ongoing interest in the site, understanding the deal points of most interest to the City. Avalon is proposing the creation of a boutique hotel and community garden called The Retreat at Rockhaven to include a 30-room hotel. The updated proposal now includes plans for a new indoor neighborhood restaurant and an on-site organic vegetable garden, a swimming pool and yoga space, and community space dedicated to the exhibition of Rockhaven artifacts and neighbor group meetings. Avalon would restore the historic landscapes and structures to the requirements of the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for historic preservation.

Darlene Sanchez, assistant director of the City’s Community Development Dept., provided an overview of the current thinking. The City would retain ownership of the property, offering a potential ground lease rather than selling the property. The adaptive reuse of Rockhaven would be completed in one phase and the resulting development would be open to the public.

Avalon principal Weston Cookler addressed the council.

“We share a common interest: to revitalize Rockhaven, make it accessible for community use, illuminate its history and implement a feasible and accountable strategy to ensure its lasting preservation,” Cookler said.

He introduced the development team as uniquely qualified in the preservation and adaptive reuse of California landmarks. Avalon’s team includes architect Brenda Levin, landscape architect Mia Lehrer and interior designer Sally Breer.

“Our business plan is simple,” Cookler said. “Build a neighborhood hotel and a family-friendly restaurant. Partnering with ARRIVE hotels, a Pasadena-based hospitality group that specializes in similarly sized neighborhood hotels that defines its approach as ‘built for the neighborhood, rooted in its surroundings.’ The most important shift in our strategy is this: We will look to embrace the Montrose community in all aspects of our development.

“Over the past few weeks I’ve sat down with folks from the Friends of Rockhaven, the Montrose Shopping Park Association, representatives from the CVCA, the Crescenta Valley Town Council, the Glendale Arts & Culture Commission and two historical societies. I’ve received the same feedback from everyone I met,” Cookler added. “Embrace the community! Montrose is a very unique community. It’s not just a suburb of Glendale but instead has a culture and a story all its own. People in Montrose are passionate about their community, about preserving its history, enhancing what makes it special and protecting its heritage and we take this to heart. We will develop our project to fit into the existing community context in both design and in function.”

Community activist Sharon Weisman expressed disappointment that the City has not taken steps to build the promised park.

“A hotel is not what the property was bought for and this is not the best place for a hotel,” she said. “An historic park featuring a woman-owned business from nearly one hundred years ago would be a draw. This facility [is] the only sanitarium left to represent a once-dominant business in the area; its story is best told by rehabilitating the buildings, including the interiors. A hotel can go anywhere.”

Glendale Historical Society president Steve Hunt spoke in favor of the recommendation to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Avalon Investment Company for the preservation and development of the former Rockhaven Sanitarium.

“Avalon has assembled an exceptional team that would guarantee the property’s historic architecture and landscape are preserved and rehabilitated in conformity with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards,” Hunt said. “The community space would ensure that Agnes Richards’ story and the Rockhaven legacy remain central to the public’s understanding of this unique site.”

Jo Ann Stupakis commented on behalf of the Friends of Rockhaven.

“We named ourselves ‘friends’ and not the Rockhaven Foundation or any other corporate name because we’re friends,” Stupakis explained. “Many of Rockhaven’s friends have been around since childhood when Rockhaven became the adopted child of the City of Glendale during a time when the hopes and dreams of open space, a library and community center were almost a sure thing. Some friends became friends of Rockhaven in the teenage years, when the childhood dreams were starting to fade away, original plans now a distant memory and new and often scary ideas were emerging. Others just recently became friends during a time of conflict and struggle with deciding what to do with this child that would not launch. But we all hung in there because of our mutual affection.

“The difference with Rockhaven and its friends is that it’s a pretty one-sided friendship,” Stupakis continued. “While Rockhaven offers her friendship freely, just by her mere existence, it is up to us, her friends, to nurture, clean, prune, preserve, protect, beautify and help share her gifts with the world.”

“Avalon Investment Company and [its] team want to share in the collaboration and vision of bringing Rockhaven back to life. They see her beauty, her history, her potential and want to join with us to pursue our goal of creating open space, useful structures and preserve the beauty that is unduplicatable. Just like new friends do, we have met together, talked openly and honestly about our hopes and dreams for the future and have committed to a continued open dialogue as plans progress. We want to officially endorse them and support your yes vote for Avalon to join the Friends of Rockhaven and the City of Glendale as we chart a beautiful future for our beloved space,” Stupakis concluded.

Local historian Michael Morgan agreed. “We can’t ask for a better team. We know they’ll be incredibly sensitive.”

The council unanimously approved staff’s recommendation to move forward with the negotiations although Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian characterized his as a “soft yes.”

After the meeting, Mayor Ara Najarian said that he is very happy a good project that preserves an important historic and community asset is moving forward.

  Julie BUTCHER