Pasadena School Board to Weigh Developer for Former Linda Vista Elementary Site

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that InSite Realty Advisors’ proposal would arrange the homes around the site’s existing central park, implying the park would remain in its current location. According to InSite’s best-and-final proposal, the plan would relocate the existing park to a central location and upgrade it, keeping it at approximately its existing size. The park would be dedicated to and maintained by the Pasadena Unified School District. The article has been corrected. We apologize for the error.

[Updated]   The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education is scheduled Thursday to consider a resolution that would select InSite Realty Advisors to redevelop the long-closed former Linda Vista Elementary School site under a 99-year ground lease and authorize district staff to begin negotiating an exclusive negotiating agreement with the developer.

Resolution 2895 would also declare the roughly 4.94-acre Pasadena property “exempt surplus land” and clear the district to pursue long-term lease revenue from a campus that has sat closed for years.

The action would not finalize any deal. The resolution states that selecting the developer and authorizing negotiations “does not constitute final approval of any ENA, ground lease, or other final transaction documents, all of which shall be subject to further approvals required by the Board.”

The resolution carries out three steps: it selects the InSite proposal as the one that best fits the district’s needs, directs the superintendent or a designee to negotiate the agreement, and finds the site to be exempt surplus land under Government Code section 54221(f)(1)(L) because it is being disposed of under the Education Code provisions that govern school-district joint-occupancy leases. A prior Education Code provision requiring the State Board of Education to approve a selected developer’s proposal before a binding agreement was repealed as of June 28, 2020, the resolution states.

Under its best-and-final offer, InSite proposes about 32 detached single-family homes arranged around a central park. The proposal would relocate the site’s existing park to a central location and upgrade it, keeping it at approximately its existing size, with the park dedicated to and maintained by the district.

The plan calls for low-density, detached homes about 25 feet tall with attached garages and ground-level primary bedrooms intended to support accessibility.

InSite’s proposed initial annual ground rent is $575,000, rising each year by the Los Angeles County Consumer Price Index — no less than 2% and no more than 3.5% — with upfront payments totaling $1 million. The site is currently partially occupied by the Linda Vista Children’s Center on a month-to-month lease, according to a competing proposal submitted as part of the RFP record. The district estimates the lease is “estimated to generate approximately $285,806,869 over the anticipated 99-year lease term,” a figure the district describes as illustrative and based on assumed inflation.

In its proposal, the Newport Beach-based InSite Realty Advisors wrote: “InSite and its team bring extensive experience in the design, entitlement, financing, and development of residential communities throughout California and the western United States.” The company, whose proposal is signed by Chairman and Founder Tony Ferrero, said it operates senior-living communities under its Clearwater Living brand and listed institutional partners including Goldman Sachs, The Carlyle Group, Harrison Street and PGIM. Its project architect, Mark Kiner of Bassenian Lagoni, has a personal tie to the site; the proposal says his mother attended the local elementary school.

InSite was one of five developers that submitted proposals on April 2, with best-and-final offers due May 4 and oral interviews completed May 12. According to a comparison prepared by CBRE, the district’s broker, the other bids were a 100-unit senior-care facility from Park IV Group/Oakmont at $425,000 a year; 45 rental homes from Woodbridge Pacific Group at $450,000 a year; 23 single-family homes, four of them affordable, from The Olson Company for a one-time $6.15 million payment; and an 80- to 110-unit senior-care facility from a Lalique Properties/Flatiron/Anthem team at $600,000 a year. District staff’s recommendation cites InSite’s projected long-term revenue, its $1 million in upfront payments, its experience and capital relationships, and and what the resolution describes as the developer’s proposed design — language drawn from InSite’s own proposal — for “a low-density residential community that complements the surrounding neighborhood aesthetic.”

The process began Aug. 28, 2025, when the board adopted a resolution of intention authorizing the request for proposals and rescinding an earlier resolution. CBRE marketed the opportunity and administered the RFP, which was issued Jan. 15 and required that the on-site park be preserved.

Even if the board adopts the resolution, the selection only begins negotiations. According to the resolution and the broker’s timeline, the steps that would follow are a separate board vote to approve the ENA itself; then the City of Pasadena’s entitlement and California Environmental Quality Act process, during which due diligence, community engagement and project refinement would occur; and finally a board vote to approve a ground lease.

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