BRITTANI HAMM | staff writer
photo | BRITTANI HAMM
Trachman Idevco announcement and layout of the future Citrus Crossing on Alosta avenue.


Citrus Crossing will include a number of stores and resturants as soon as 2008.

Trachman Indevco, the developer in charge of renovating the existing Foothill shopping center located at the southwest corner of Citrus avenue and Alosta avenue, has been talking with the Azusa community about making some big changes over the next three years.

“The property was totally dysfunctional. Obviously it looked bad and it didn’t have the kind of stores that people wanted to shop in on a regular basis,” Trachman Indevco President Andrew M. Trachman said.

The community was kept involved, and gave their input regarding what they wanted the new center to include.

“We had seven community meetings, and in those community meetings there were two wishes [voiced by] the community. One was that we keep the cinema and the other was that we bring in a market,” Trachman said.

Ground breaking began on Monday, Sep. 3. Phase one, to be completed in summer 2008, includes the reopening of the theater and shopping center. It will also include the building of some of the 102 on site town homes behind the theatre.

“As long as the theater is still cheap, I don’t care,” sophomore art major Jeremiah Catling said.

The main attraction of the Regency Cinemas in the former Foothill Center was not that it was high quality, but that its movie prices were the lowest around. Although the price of tickets will certainly be raised, the quality of the run-down theater center will be greatly improved. The theater will still be Regency Cinemas, but the interior and exterior of the theater will undergo drastic remodeling during the next year. Structurally speaking, the breezeway will be removed to allow for outdoor seating, and the parking lot is being remodeled to include better lighting for security purposes.

“Students want to be able to hang out somewhere at night,” Director of Community Relations Ginny Dadaian said. “Hopefully that will be this facility.”

The new food establishments surrounding the theatre will include: Panda Express, Jamba Juice, and Starbucks. Ross and CVS will be remodeled, but everything in between the two stores will be flattened in approximately thirty to forty-five days. Also new to the area (and country) is Fresh and Easy, a supermarket owned by the British company, Tesco.

“The other piece is that we’re installing a new public street, which will extend Fenimore avenue from Alosta avenue to the neighborhood to the south, and tie into Fenimore avenue,” Trachman said. “That will be a public street that will go right through the property.”

The row of town houses will have to use Fenimore avenue to get to and from their homes, which is the road on which Foothill Middle School is located. How did the school respond to the news that the drivers from this new housing development would be using their road as a point of access?

“Azusa Unified School District will be happy, because hopefully it will bring more kids to the district,” Dadaian said.

Overall, the community has embraced the idea of reviving the once thriving Foothill Center.