WEST HOLLYWOOD : City May Buy Esprit Site for Council Quarters

The city of West Hollywood is negotiating to buy the 32,000-square-foot building at 8491 Santa Monica Blvd. from San Francisco-based apparel maker Esprit de Corp.

City officials are planning to use the site for its City Council chambers and offices and as the local branch of the Los Angeles County library, according to sources close to the deal.

Most municipal offices moved to a new $8.3-million City Hall in May, but the council still holds its biweekly meetings in an auditorium at West Hollywood Park because of a lack of suitable space at the new facility. The park also serves as home to the 5,170-square-foot public library, which contains about 53,000 volumes and currently faces budget cuts along with the rest of the county library system.

West Hollywood officials declined to discuss the negotiations, but one source put the anticipated purchase price at $3.3 million, far lower than the estimated $14 million in renovations the building received in the mid-1980s. The city is considering various sources of financing, including a bond issue, according to a city official who requested anonymity.

Esprit spokesman Danny Kraus confirmed that the company was negotiating the building’s sale to West Hollywood, but said only that the proposed sale price is inaccurate.

Esprit, which began as a wholesaler and mail-order house in the late 1960s, grew to estimated annual sales of $1 billion by designing and selling fashionable clothes for children and juniors. The privately held company, which does not release sales figures, purchased the West Hollywood site, near La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards, in 1983.