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A Los Angeles mega-mall developer is pushing forward with his plans for an up-scale shopping complex and a hotel at Golden Gate Fields. 

Developer Rick Caruso and his staff have been talking up ideas for the track’s shoreline property through meetings with environmental and community groups, City Councilmembers in Albany and Berkeley’s Mayor Tom Bates. 

Caruso Affiliated has partnered with Magna Entertainment, the Canadian company that owns the Albany track and some of the nation’s premiere horse-racing venues. 

Plans for the bayshore track parallel those now underway at Magna’s fabled Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia. Caruso’s plans for the two tracks include high-end shops along with entertainment venues and possible housing units. Also, a hotel on the Berkeley portion of the East Bay site has been discussed. 

Matt Middlebrook, former deputy mayor to the recently defeated Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn (a beneficiary of Caruso’s campaign contributions), has joined Caruso’s team and has been meeting with local officials to generate support for the Golden Gate Fields project. 

“We’re meeting with residents and leaders in the business community,” Middlebrow said. “We’re interested in doing a potential development, and we’re meeting with the community about the size of the project, the shops and the amenities.” 

Whatever happens, Middlebrook said, Caruso would complete the Bay Trail through the site and offer significant amounts of open space. Middlebrook also said that one desire which has been consistent from community members is for a hotel on the property. 

While Albany Chamber of Commerce members have said they see the mall as a threat to local businesses, Middlebrook said views are mixed on the Albany City Council. 

“I think the people are, hopefully, open-minded and will allow us to show them a project based on their feedback,” he said. 

Caruso and Middlebrook met with Robert Cheasty, co-founder of Citizens for Eastshore Parks, Sierra Club activist Norman La Force, Save the Bat co-founder Sylvia McLau ghlin and others, but failed to win them over. 

The Sierra Club has offered a proposal that included closing of the ailing track, with a smaller shopping complex and a hotel adjacent to the I-80 frontage road while leaving the bay frontage for park and re creational activities. 

“Feedback has been very positive,” Middlebrook said. “People are interested in seeing something more than makes the site more attractive to the community. 

The financially troubled Magna Entertainment has been seeking ways to impro ve its ailing bottom line. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Saturday that Magna has lost over $215 million (Canadian dollars) in the last three years. 

While horse racing accounted for 80 percent of gambling revenue in the 1960s, it’s now do wn to about 2 percent, the CBC reported. Race track attendance, the source of admissions revenue has plunged at most tracks as betting has shifted to off-track betting shops and the Internet. 

Magna, owned by auto parts giant Frank Stronach, has been shif ting to so-called “racinos,” which feature slot machine and other gambling games at race tracks. 

Earlier this month, Magna officials warned Maryland that they may move the Preakness, the second leg of horse racing’s legendary Triple Crown from their tra ck at Pimlico to their recently remodeled Gulfstream Park in Florida unless they’re allowed to install slot machines at Pimlico. 

Magna is also negotiating with a Native American tribe about opening a racino at their Meadows track in Portland, Ore., and h as won approval for similar casinos at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, The Meadows in Pennsylvania and Lone Star Park in Texas. 

Magna is also building a major new racetrack at Dixon in Yolo County, one specially designed for the closed-circuit televisio n used at off-track betting parlors and the wagering lounges at other tracks. 

To stage races at the new track would require a shutdown at either Golden Gate or Bay Meadows on the peninsula, a track once operated by Magna. 

Magna has allocated a $1 millio n to aid in development of their joint projects with Caruso at Golden Gate and Santa Anita, and Caruso recently spent $1 million on a successful ballot measure to let him build one of his malls in Glendale. 

Albany City Councilmember Robert Lieber, a trac k opponent, said Golden Gate Fields pays about $500,000 a year in taxes to the city. 

“Their revenue has been going up in recent years, but our (share) has been going down because the Internet handle isn’t subject to the city tax,” he said. ›