3 Park Plaza Project Buildings Face Foreclosure

Three commercial buildings in Chula Vista’s Park Plaza at the Village downtown redevelopment project face foreclosure in September unless the developer pays off $5 million in overdue loans and interest to Beverly Hills Savings & Loan, city redevelopment officials acknowledged Friday.

Chula Vista developer Richard Zogob, whose company is a general partner in the group that built the three structures, has threatened to declare bankruptcy to shield the property from foreclosure unless the city grants him financial concessions that would enable him to refinance or sell the property, City Councilman David Malcolm said Friday.

Malcolm and City Councilman Tim Nader were appointed Tuesday to a council subcommittee to consider Zogob’s request. Zogob refused to discuss his property’s problems Friday. Mission Viejo-based Beverly Hills Savings also declined to comment on the status of the delinquent loan.

The buildings in question are the Fuddrucker’s and Seafood Broiler restaurants and a 60,000-square-foot specialty shop-office building on Chula Vista’s 15-acre redevelopment zone bounded by 3rd and 4th avenues, F Street and Memorial Park.

Both the Fuddrucker’s and Seafood Broiler operations “are doing well” in their leased buildings and probably would not be affected by a foreclosure, redevelopment coordinator Fred Kassman said Friday.

One limited-partner investor in the property, who asked not to be identified, said the partnership has been hurt by losses at the slow-to-lease specialty center and by the high debt and maintenance costs associated with the redevelopment area’s 700-space parking garage. Malcolm said Zogob wants the city to relieve his group of at least $120,000 in annual costs related to the parking garage.

The $5 million owed to Beverly Hills was a construction loan the Zogob group used to build the specialty center, which is also secured by the two restaurant buildings. Unaffected by the possible foreclosure are the adjacent United Artists theater complex and Marie Callender’s restaurant, both of which are company-owned buildings, Kassman said.

As master developer of the redevelopment area, Zogob was given financial incentives in the form of favorable land prices to develop the commercial buildings plus 210 condominiums and apartments on the Park Plaza parcel.