City eying Town & Country Center as part of new Fire Station 1 plans, preservation group says

The Palm Springs City Council will meet in closed session Wednesday, April 8 to continue negotiations over the potential acquisition of portions of the Town & Country Center — with a local preservation group saying the city intends to site a new Fire Station No. 1 on the property and incorporate the 1948 landmark’s existing building into the station’s design.

The Palm Springs Modern Committee said in a Facebook post Thursday that the city contacted the group two weeks ago to discuss the proposed purchase. The organization said the city’s need to find a new location for Fire Station No. 1 made parcels associated with the Town & Country Center “the best solution,” and that the outcome it is advocating for “would result in the restoration of the Town and Country restaurant, including the north two-story portion.”

The city has not confirmed that account.

The April 8 closed session agenda lists three properties under negotiation: 165 North Indian Canyon Drive, 149 North Indian Canyon Drive and 146 North Palm Canyon Drive — addresses associated with the Town & Country Center complex.

City Manager Scott Stiles and City Attorney Jeff Ballinger are listed as the city’s negotiators; Michael Braun is identified as the negotiating party representing Town & Country Center, LLC. The agenda lists price and terms as the subject of negotiations. The city has not publicly announced its plans for the property.

Wednesday’s session is not the first time the matter has appeared on a closed session agenda.

Fire station background

The fire station context has been building for months. The Palm Springs Fire Department held the first in a series of community open houses at Fire Station No. 1 on Feb. 23 to outline modernization plans for the facility on North Indian Canyon Drive — the same corridor as the Town & Country Center parcels listed in the April 8 agenda.

Fire Chief Paul Alvarado told attendees the 1957 facility can no longer meet the demands of modern emergency services. He stressed that situating the new fire station as close to the current station as possible was paramount.

“When we moved the fire station across the street … we lost four-tenths of a mile of coverage,” Alvarado said, adding that other proposed relocation sites would reduce city coverage by more than eight miles.

Plans to expand or rebuild on the current site and an adjacent parking lot drew pushback from nearby business owners concerned about losing the parking spots. A group representing property owners from the 200 and 300 blocks of North Palm Canyon Drive walked out of the Feb. 23 open house, gathering outside with a “Save Our Parking” banner.

If the city acquires the Town & Country parcels for the new fire station, it could remove the threat to the parking that drew their opposition.

A landmark in disrepair

The Town & Country Center, designed by Paul R. Williams and A. Quincy Jones, is considered one of the notable examples of international-style architecture in Southern California and has held Class 1 Historic Site status in Palm Springs since 2016. Williams holds a singular place in American architectural history as the first African American architect elected to the American Institute of Architects, in 1923, and the first African American AIA Fellow, in 1957.

Despite its designation, the property has long been a source of frustration for preservationists and city officials. While buildings fronting Palm Canyon Drive have seen gradual improvements, the portion facing Indian Canyon Drive has remained in disrepair.

Those frustrations were aired publicly at an Oct. 5, 2024, meeting of the city’s Historic Site Preservation Board. Board member Peter Moruzzi, a historian and preservationist who founded the Palm Springs Modern Committee, questioned city staff about the pace of efforts to address conditions at the property.

“I don’t recall any other issue that’s been raised about maintenance and disrepair that has taken this long, even with the Orchid Tree property,” Moruzzi said. “That’s been on the radar forever.”

Planning Director Christopher Hadwin acknowledged the complexity of the situation, noting that negotiations with the property owner and coordination between city departments were ongoing.

“Part of it is just ongoing negotiation with the property owner, and part of it is just internal city functions,” Hadwin said. “The issue of compliance and code enforcement rests with a different department than planning.”

Vacant building, stalled tenants

Efforts to attract tenants to the property’s long-vacant two-story central building have also met setbacks. In February 2025, Braun confirmed that talks with Barnes & Noble had ended after a year of discussions and three site visits.

“We did not have a disagreement on terms; rather, they chose not to move forward with negotiating the lease,” Braun said. “After multiple visits and a thorough market analysis, they ultimately decided not to proceed to the next stage.”

Braun cited the building’s orientation as a recurring obstacle. “The primary challenge continues to be the building’s orientation toward Indian Canyon rather than Palm Canyon,” he said.

The two-story building, which once housed Zelda’s Nightclub, has sat vacant for years. A 2009 City Council decision had allowed for its potential demolition as part of a broader downtown development plan, but a subsequent council reversed course when it granted the Town & Country Center its historic designation in 2016, blocking demolition and any proposed new street connection through the property.

The closed session is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Wednesday, with the council’s open session set for 5:30 p.m. at the Council Chambers at City Hall. If an agreement is reached it would be announced in open session.

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