Millbrae purchases Zack's Bar and Grill

Millbrae leaders approved the $1.3 million purchase of Zack’s Bar and Grill on Tuesday, the first step in securing area around the train station to create the dream of offering an area where commuters could leisurely exit Caltrain or BART to grab food, catch a movie or walk home.

On Tuesday, the council approved the purchase of 100 El Camino Real, Zack’s Bar and Grill, for $1.3 million. Such a purchase would be the city’s first in an effort to move forward on a 2006 proposal for the area around the Millbrae Bay Area Rapid Transit Station — known as Site One. The cost will be covered using money from the city’s Redevelopment Agency. The restaurant will remain open until the development begins.

The council previously extended exclusive negotiating rights to Irvine based Fancher Partners a few times, which was unsuccessful in securing the property.

Fancher has about 60 percent of the lands in varying levels of control, according to Community Development Director Ralph Petty’s staff report. In late September, Fancher offered to assign three of the contracts to the Millbrae Redevelopment Agency at no cost.

A closed session September council meeting resulted in direction to negotiate deposits on the properties. The 100 El Camino Real deal is scheduled to close escrow Oct. 30.

The effort to develop the land in Site One near the Millbrae BART Station began in 1996. The Site One area ends at El Camino Real on the west, by the yet to be built Victoria Avenue on the north, by the extension of California Drive to the east and by Millbrae Avenue to the south.

The proposed vision — which was last visited in early 2006 — is dubbed the Millbrae Station Pavilion, a six-story, mixed-used development covering about eight acres of land.