City Council to Vote on Contract to Demolish Banner Bank Building

Pasadena’s City Council could move ahead Monday with plans to build a triangular “pocket park” at Union Street and El Molino Avenue.

The council will vote on a proposed contract for the demolition of the Banner Bank building on Union Street, at the easternmost tip of the triangle that the city owns and is currently being used as a publicly accessible parking lot. 

The Department of Public Works is recommending the City Council approve the demolition contract with Interior Demolition Inc. for $100,000. The amount includes the base contract amount of $88,168, and a contingency of $11,832 to provide for any necessary change orders, according to a Public Works Department report. 

In January 2018, the City Council approved the purchase of the former Banner Bank site to address a park “gap” area in the Central District. In March 2019, council members approved the purchase of up to one-half of the City-owned 32,950-square-foot Union/El Molino parking lot. 

Combining the 9,750-square-foot Banner Bank parcel, the 2,730-square-foot adjacent City-owned parcel, and up to one-half of the Union/El Molino parking site yields up to a 28,995 square-foot site for the proposed Playhouse District Park and Parking Lot project. 

The remaining portion of the Union/El Molino parking lot will retain a required minimum 48 parking spaces, as directed by the City Council, and will be designed to integrate with the proposed park to facilitate multi-use programming. 

Based upon a series of consultation meetings and workshops, a Stakeholder Committee composed of representatives from the Pasadena Playhouse District Association, Downtown Pasadena Neighborhood Association, local homeowners associations, Council District liaisons, and City of Pasadena Public Works staff, a conceptual design for the pocket park was submitted in late 2019, further refined, and finally presented to the Recreation and Parks Commission.

Last February, the Recreation and Parks Commission voted to support the design and endorsed it to the City Council. 

Preliminary estimates of the construction costs based on the presented concept design is up to $4.6 million, which the City Council appropriated as part of the City’s fiscal year 2021 Capital Improvement Project budget. 

Work on the design development and preparation of the project plans and specifications is currently underway, according to the Public Works Department. Actual construction work should begin in early 2021. 

For the demolition phase, Interior Demolition Inc.’s scope of work includes demolition of the existing two-story, 5,538-square-foot building and its foundations; removal of site paving, curbs, and vegetation; backfill and rough site grading, and disconnecting and capping utilities.

Interior Demolition, Inc., based in Montrose, is one of six contractors who submitted bids for the project after the contract and a Notice Inviting Bids were advertised in April. 

The company was previously involved in the demolition of the former Desiderio Army Reserve Center to make way to an affordable housing and park project, according to Public Works Department records.