By Olga Grigoryants | [email protected] | Los Angeles Daily News

Electric car maker Tesla is moving forward with plans to turn the closed Winnetka Pacific Theatres building in Chatsworth into a delivery hub and service center.

The new facility at 9201 N. Winnetka Ave. will operate as a car-delivery and customer pickup center, according to Tesla representatives who spoke at the Los Angeles City Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, June 25.

"Tesla's goal was to reuse as much of the existing architecture and simplify the facade," said Diana Tran, a Tesla representative at the meeting, adding that the longtime giant crown on the top of the Pacific Theatre building will be moved to create "a clean and simple design with the basic colors."

The Winnetka Pacific Theatres closed its doors during the pandemic and later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The project will turn the 118,784-square-foot multiplex, originally built as a drive-in theater, into a car-delivery hub.

"We hope to be approved by the end of the year, which will allow us to bring our timeline into the later part of 2025 to finish construction of interior improvements," said Heather Waldstein, a planning associate with Rosenheim & Associates Inc., during the meeting.

The parking lot has 1,242 parking spaces and Tesla seeks to remove 95 of them to end up with 1,147 parking spaces on site. Nearly 900 parking spaces will be repurposed as vehicle storage space and 249 parking spaces will remain for use by employees, customers and visitors.

Tesla representatives said on Tuesday that seven trees will be removed to clear the way for trucks and new car delivery. A former movie theater ticket kiosk will be demolished along with four trees that will be removed along the building's front edge to allow for car access to the facility.

The new delivery hub will have a showroom, a service lounge for customers and an area used for pre-delivery inspection.

The project has received unanimous support from the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council, according to Tesla representatives.

The plan is set to go before the Los Angeles City Planning Commission in September. It will take a couple of weeks for the commission to issue a determination letter, allowing the public to comment on the project. Assuming no problems, the project then will go to the Planning and Land Use Management Committee of the Los Angeles City Council and then to the full City Council for final approval.

Tesla currently operates showrooms in other parts of the San Fernando Valley including Van Nuys, Burbank and Agoura Hills.