Paragon At Old Town Monrovia Now Renting

By Terry Miller

Published: Friday, February 26th, 2010

Photo by Terry Miller
By Susan Motander

Paragon At Old Town, the new complex on Myrtle Avenue between Olive and Walnut Avenues, is set to open in the beginning of April, but is already renting units. Very soon traffic on Myrtle Avenue will return to normal. Part of the snarls have been created by the city of Monrovia which is upgrading the west side of the street to match the improvements the developers are making to the east side with the new complex.
The Paragon will anchor the south end of Old Town. Fittingly, the developers are putting in a large gateway over the street. The structure will read “Myrtle Avenue” over larger lettering reading “Old Town Monrovia.” According to Craig Jimenez, a Monrovia Planner, there is no firm date for the installation of the gateway, but the city hopes it will be installed early in April.
There will be 163 residential units of one and two bedrooms. In addition there will be 3 to 4 commercial spaces available. All the apartments have full amenities including dishwashers, refrigerators, washers and dryers as well as large amounts of storage space, many with walk-in closets. The is also a large heated elliptical pool and a spa. The pool area has a fireplace and a complete barbecue area with two grills and a bar space. There will be lounge chairs as well as umbrellas in the pool area. All residents will have access to a resident’s lounge with a fireplace, flat screen television, and bar. The complex even has a pool room and fitness center eliminating the need for a gym membership.
All the apartment floor plans are named for local historic figures including Monroe and Spence and Sinclair. The smallest one bedroom apartments are called Reid, after Hugo Reid who first settled Rancho Santa Anita which he later sold to Lucky Baldwin (after whom the smallest 2 bedroom units are named).
The largest apartments are named Huntington for Henry Huntington who was instrumental in establishing the Pacific Electric Railroad, fitting as the location of Paragon is that of the old Red Car station in Monrovia. At the corner of Myrtle and Olive the developers the Urban Housing Group of Palo Alto has put in a public art plaza which will feature a sculpture of a small family disembarking from a Red Car.
Just adjacent to the Art Plaza will the largest retail space which according to Dan Bacani is ideal for a restaurant. Bacani Vice President of N.A.I. Capital Commercial of Pasadena is handling the rental of the retail spaces. There are two other retail/office spaces, one of which and easily be divided into two separate spaces, Bacani noted. He said he hoping to rent these spaces out to businesses which would benefit the residents of the complex
Currently the residential spaces are being handled out of a temporary structure on Olive Avenue. Eventually the resident rental agent, Olivia Choto, will be working out a permanent office on Myrtle Avenue. Choto said “I’m looking forward to being an active member of this community.”
A large parking structure is a part of the complex. The first floor of the parking structure will be open to the general public free of charge to ease the parking situation in Old Town. The upper levels will be reserved for the residents.

Posted by Terry Miller on Feb 26th, 2010 and filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

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