RIALTO - The Renaissance Rialto project took a step forward Tuesday evening when the City Council voted to transfer 437 acres of airport land to the city Redevelopment Agency.

The agency will in turn sell the land, which is along the Interstate 210 extension, to developers who want to turn the area into a massive development full of housing, businesses, schools and parks.

Lewis-Hillwood LLC, a partnership between Lewis Operating Corp. and Hillwood Development Corp., headed by Ross Perot Jr., is the developer.

The airport and land north of it have been appraised at $82million, but the Federal Aviation Administration is waiting an appraisal of its own. The developer will pay the city that amount for the land, minus the price of preparing the land for development.

The city will also pay 45percent of the FAA's appraised sum to the federal agency.

BS Ranch Perspective:

Rialto Moving forward as they say is a very costly event as I can see here!! I just hope that they are making the right move and that they have the right Tax Breaks made to the Merchants that move in, or NOT! Because just the pay back of the land to the FAA will be Approximately $36.9 Million @ the Appraisal that the city got of the property, not the FAA's appraised Value.

My Best Prediction will be that the Renaissance will be placed on hold for a while the money end of the situation is hammered out!!! Since The FAA will have a much different appraised Value then the City's Appraised Value of the Land. Therefore, if the FAA comes up with a property Value of approximately $1 Billion for example, then the city would be responsible for paying the sum of $45 Million dollars, that is a much higher amount then the sum of $36.9 Million that they were talking about previously.

The city would owe the FAA, like before and it would feel bad for them, and Ed Scott is to blame again, since he is the one that went to the Politician and asked him to act upon is ability to Place a bit of PORK onto the Transportation bill, the largest, bill of its kind for California, and then Rialto was benefited more then people really realize, they were relieved of all the expansion loans that they owed tot he FAA, for the Airport Expansion to make it an Airport where people can learn to fly, and people could transport Freight in and out of the Heart of the Inland Empire, but since San Bernardino got the Airport over there, we got the Sheriff's Department and Mercy Air, all the Schools for Teaching the foreign Exchange Students Closed or moved to Chino Airport an Airport better suited for Teaching with better Teaching facilities, and Offices for the Schools. Most of the Students and Schools were from Chino Airport, and were enrolled over there, but there was such a demand at the time that they had to expand to Rialto Airport to accommodate the overflow! When the slowdown came they continued to teach but over in Chino, and no longer at Rialto Airport. That forced the Diner to close since there wasn't many locals that knew that it was there, and the students ate there every day were gone. Eve was forced to close the doors and move onto another location or another trade. I am sorry to say for Eve.

The Airport since has had some students but not that many, and there has been a small Go Cart Race track that has started there. The Go Cart track is where the Legends like Tony Stewart got started when he was a kid. They race these Go Carts, that go approximately 50 to 60 MPH if they were just on a straight away, but they are not, the tracks are small and either Oval or Kidney Shaped, and the races are set by the track. The track at the Rialto Airport was set up and run by a Rialto Fire Department Capt. Amends, he is a very nice guy and he even has been known to darn the Fire Resistant Suit and gone around the track a few times to win his division. It is a lot of fun but it will be gone when the Renaissance will be there.

I cannot believe that they are closing the Icon of the Rialto Airport, the Icon that has been with the city for so long, and the FAA isn't wanting to close the Airport citing that they need the airport where it is for airplanes that have distress in the air and need a close place to land from the mountains just below the pass, and the Rialto Airport is just that kind of spot..

Well, with the building of new stores, and the payment of up to $45 Million Dollars to the FAA they will be opening a center that will have stores and places that will be going out of business like the ones that are or have been located on another location. they cannot compete with the people and the people might not even come since places like Victoria Gardens with a more catchy name has opened and is doing a bang up business,

I feel that it is one that we have to stand back and wait a year from the time that the first store is open. then we will see what happens. No way that they plan out one area of the city over the next. When they should plan the whole city all at one time!! That would certainly be the "BRIDGE to PROGRESS"!!

BS Ranch