After horse racing stops at Los Alamitos Race Course, what happens to the 170 acres?

CYPRESS >> From his favorite table atop the grandstands, the man they call Doc often surveys his race track and horse-racing empire below.

Dr. Edward Allred, 80, the owner of Los Alamitos Race Course and the majority landowner of the property, said he has no immediate plans to close the track but with the declining state of horse racing doubts anyone after him will keep jockeys atop circling thoroughbreds and quarter horses here.

What should become of the track’s 155-plus acres of prime real estate should the sporting venue go away is a brewing controversy.

“It doesn’t make any sense for any track, Santa Anita, Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park ... to be there in light of property values,” said Allred beneath the grandstands in a conference room. “We’d like to do what we’re doing, and so I’m going to continue doing that as long as I can. ... It’s unlikely to find a successor who can do the same thing.”

So Allred and other track backers created Measure GG, to prepare for that day when racing leaves. The November ballot item asks voters in Cypress — where the Los Alamitos Race Course actually resides — to rezone the land for a master-planned, mixed-use community.

If approved, the new zoning could allow a 32-acre town center with entertainment, retail stores and restaurants; a 20-acre public park; 93 acres of low- and medium-density homes; and commercial space and senior housing on the rest.

The massive parcel, which also once held the now-closed Cypress Golf Course where Tiger Woods learned to play and held the 18-hole record at 63, is larger than Angel Stadium and its parking lot.

Right now, the land could go for $1 million an acre, said Tom Reimers, senior vice president of Land Advisors Organization, but if rezoned could fetch $3 million or $4 million an acre.

An economic analysis by Andrew Chang & Co., a consulting service the race track hired, estimated such development would add $3.5 million per year to city coffers in tax revenue, create 500 jobs, and add 1,000 or so homes with 3,000 new residents.

The Cypress City Council hasn’t taken a stance on the proposed rezoning. But Councilman Jon Peat is supportive: “The future of Cypress will be on Katella Avenue, and the development of the race course property.”

But officials of the neighboring city of Los Alamitos are fearful of the possible swelling of traffic and influx of so many more people nearby.

Advertisement

“This Armageddon,” is how Los Alamitos Mayor Richard Murphy referred to the proposal during an August City Council meeting. “We need to have our plan in place as to what we want to do.”

Another strike against the proposed rezoning, at least to some, is an earlier attempt to develop some of the land.

“We’ve got burned before,” said George Pardon, 65, who wrote the opposing ballot argument and is director for Citizens for Responsible Development. “You remember the saying, ‘Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me’? We’re not going to be fooled again.”

It all started years ago

The Los Alamitos Race Course was nothing more than a long stretch of dirt and grandstands on Frank Vessels Sr.’s farm in what was then called the Los Alamitos Ranch area. In 1947, informal horse racing began playing out, with pari-mutual betting taking root in 1951.

“It put Los Alamitos and that area on the map,” said Larry Strawther, a local historian. “It brought a lot of people to town, businesses and horsemen who wanted to live by the track.”

In the 1980s, Vessels’ heirs sold the property to Hollywood Park, which turned around and sold it a decade later to Allred and his partners.

With the exception of a 13-acre plot the city owns, most of the land that falls under the ballot proposal is permitted for agriculture, cemeteries, churches, hospitals, public buildings and schools.

Measure D, approved by Cypress voters in 1987, requires voters to approve any zone change of public and semi-public areas, which includes the race track land.

In 2012, Los Alamitos Race Course, through Measure L, successfully got 33 acres re-zoned “for market-rate senior citizen housing, assisted-living facilities, professional offices, including medical services, and mixed-use commercial,” as the ballot measure put it.

Nearby residents became furious when Allred and a partner, Christo Bardis, sold the land to Prologis for the development of a warehouse and distribution center that fell under the mixed-use commercial designation.

At one point, 129 truck bays were planned, although that number was later reduced.

“We thought we were getting a senior housing development, and instead they were giving us a large-scale truck facility,” said David Rose, a longtime Cypress resident.

The uproar led to Prologis selling the land back to Bardis and Allred, who later struck a deal with the Province Group to develop an active senior community, Barton Place, that is slated to start construction sometime this year.

Allred acknowledged that a horrible mistake was made.

“It was a bad deal, and it didn’t happen,” Allred said. “That’s not going to happen again. The best use of the land is residential and most lucrative. If they don’t want that, then I don’t know what they want.”

Wording on the latest ballot measure prohibits warehousing, wholesale and distribution facilities.

Pardon, who opposes the latest measure, wants more guarantees and project-specific proposals.

“My issue is they are going to sell the land and turn it over for someone else to develop it,” Pardon said. “It could look like the Towne Center in Long Beach or Bella Terra in Huntington Beach, but it could also look like downtown Santa Ana or downtown Los Angeles with tall office buildings. We just don’t know.”

The decline of horse racing

Allred figures the track itself has about 10 more years.

Horse racing at Los Alamitos faces the same troubles as many other race courses: A rapid decline in attendance, and a rise in property values. Bay Meadows, in San Mateo, shut down in 2008, and Hollywood Park in Inglewood did the same in 2013.

Los Al attendance has dropped considerably, acknowledged Frank Sherren, a facilities manager at the race course who declined to provide specific numbers. But, according to the California Board of Stewards, less than 2,400 attended the track over three days earlier this month for quarter-horse races, in grandstands that can hold 12,000.

Pari-mutuel betting generated $244 million last year but most of that money comes from off-track betters and is down from $260 million in 2012, according to state records. The city of Cypress’ shares is $350,000 to $400,000 a year.

Kevin Miller, 52, of Huntington Beach, wants the track to hold on.

“I’ve been coming here for more than 30 years,” he said. “I’d have to go to Las Vegas.”

After placing a bet, Larry Wilson, 65, of Bellflower offered this thought: “This is a good place to come, and a great environment.”

Allred, who made his fortune operating one of the nation’s largest private abortion clinics, maintained that as long as he’s able in “mind and body” the track will remain open.

He has no children. Money that he would make from a land sale would go to family members but mostly to his trust that would fund education and other charities.

“(But) I don’t think this measure is going to pass,” he said. “There’s an anti-growth, anti-development movement. That’s the mood of the people these days.”

Either way, Allred figures, the land that the race track sits on will eventually be developed.

A “big name” hospital has reached out to him to buy 30 or 40 acres for a medical facility.

“It’s going to be developed one way or another,” he said. “I’m leaving it up to the voters of Cypress to decide what they want.”

------------------------------------------

What the land would be zoned

31.8 acres: Town center with entertainment, retail and restaurant.

20.7 acres: Public park

93.3 acres: Residential, low and medium density.

22.3 acres: Mixed-use, medium-density homes/town homes and commercial space.

1.7 acres: Senior housing.

Source: CypressTownCenter.com