Seizing the moment, City Council President Eric Garcetti admitted Wednesday for the first time that there’s problems with the controversial Hal Katersky CRA-subsidized office project at 1601 N. Vine St. in Hollywood.
Garcetti brought the issue to the Council floor 12 times in less than six months and each time blinked and continued it. Last week, he sent it back to the Housing and Economic Development Committee which sent it back to the Council without any recommedation.
In Public Comment before the full Council, Wayne Spindler spelled out many of the issues that have been raised by community activists and bloggers, prompting Garcetti to respond.
“If we can’t get some answers out of what happened with CRA . . . we certainly ren’t going to move things forward until we understand what happened there,”Garcetti said, putting the project on life support.
What he should do is call Community Redevelopment Agency officials before the Council, release all documents regarding the project and demand hard answers about every aspect of this dirty deal.
Katersky, CEO of Santa Monica-based Pacifica Ventures that specializes in profiteering from runaway film and TV production, has a long record of his projects becoming tied up in bankruptcy, lawsuits and controversy.
He bought the property, home to a parking lot and Molly’s hamburger stand, in 2006 from another controversial beneficiary of CRA subsidies, Ullman Investments, and then flipped it a month later to the CRA for the same price, $5.45 million, and immediately got CRA agreement to begin negotiations to buy it back for $825,000 .– a gift of $4.6 million in public money to a questionable developer for an unneeded office building.
“When they feel through CIM destroyed the properties so that they would be blighted and be under the CRA” Should have read:
When that CRA deal fell through for the Hollywood-Western Project, CIM then got the lots, destroyed the businesses, allowed some of the buildings to burn to the ground while others became havens for gangs and prostitution — all with the CRA blessing.”
Where is the City Controller in all of this?
I think Mr. Zwartz hit the nail on the head – How can Garcetti claim ignorance when these issues have been raised since June 2010 with Cary Brazeman, Ron Kaye, Hollywood Unbound, and numerous letters, emails, and submittals to ALL 15 incumbent Council members?
Anyone familiar with the LA City Council and CD-13 in particular knows that a prospective developer first goes to the Council office for their blessing. Many times, CD-13 will tell them what to do such as “increase the height, shove it forward to the sidewalk, etc”
Then maybe an independent investigation of the CRA is warranted that would go back 5 to 10 years to show a pattern of fraud and criminal activity.
Start with the Slauson Central shopping center project where competent shopping center developer was ready to build the project without any public subsidy. Then Jan Perry swoped in and got CRA to condemn the land away from the rightful owners and instead gave the project and about $20 million in public subsidy to her political cronies. She needs to be investigated by the FBI for her corruption.
Mr. Humphreville (November 17, 2010 2:03 PM) hits on something not discussed much, the financials. If you look at all the reports since 2006, the financials haven’t changed. This assumptions for this project are based on 2006 and completely ignore the October 2008 Great Recession that the entire Country is in.
Los Angeles is at ground Zero of the Great Recession and will take longer than the rest of the Country to comeback. That means high vacancy rates in commercial buildings. This new project will only add to the supply, further depressing the local market.
Don’t hold your breath with Garcetti doing the right thing. Keep an eye on this one and make sure that your video camera batteries are charged when this gets on the agenda for City Council.
One of two things will happen: Either it will be on the consent agenda and no public speakers will be allowed to speak.
Or it will be on the agenda and everything will be justified (the CRA will say, we can’t find the documents and everyone involved is no longer working for the CRA). That is exactly what they already said in Committee.
If it does get on the City Council Agenda, Garcetti will perform his usual theatrical performance about jobs and the economy. Who cares about any criminal activity that took place.