City Panel Won’t Save the ‘Jesus Saves’ Church

The saga of Los Angeles’ “Jesus Saves” church--now featuring an ex-con deal maker as well as TV preacher Gene Scott--took another plot turn Wednesday when a city commission refused to extend a demolition moratorium on the downtown landmark.

The decision was hailed by the Glendora-based Church of the Open Door, which has been repeatedly frustrated in efforts to sell its old Hope Street home to developers. It was a setback for Scott, who has led a crusade to save the 72-year-old church ever since he tried and failed to buy it in 1986.

The Cultural Heritage Commission’s decision means that a 180-day demolition ban will expire Feb. 15. The moratorium took effect after the church, known for its neon, rooftop “Jesus Saves” signs, was declared a historic monument by the City Council last summer.

Even so, it will be months, perhaps years, before a wrecking ball strikes the church’s Italian Renaissance Revival facade. The latest holdup is an involuntary bankruptcy filing by a would-be buyer on Jan. 11, a move that raises new questions about the building’s fate.

The Ninth and Grand Ltd. Partnership filed the bankruptcy shortly before escrow was to close on a $20-million purchase of the property. Before the bankruptcy, Ninth and Grand General Manager James L. Lucero, who in early 1981 served 21 months in federal prison for a fraud conviction, boasted in news accounts that the property would be quickly resold to an East Coast buyer for $34 million.

Ninth and Grand contends that the bankruptcy status protects the firm’s interest in the building, according to Joel Klevens, attorney for Church of the Open Door. Ninth and Grand in December had already made a $500,000 payment toward the purchase. Efforts to reach the company’s attorneys were unsuccessful.

“We don’t believe the bankruptcy was filed in good faith,” Klevens said. Ninth and Grand’s only “significant creditors” listed in the bankruptcy filing, Klevens said, were two of the partners--Lucero and Salvatore Federico.

Despite Lucero’s background, Church of the Open Door officials said they had been confident that Ninth and Grand’s offer was legitimate until the bankruptcy filing. Now, church officials say they want to find another buyer.

Wolery expressed confidence that the courts would reject Ninth and Grand’s claims, just as an earlier bankruptcy engineered by Scott’s lawyers has been denounced as “reprehensible” by a federal judge.

“It feels the same whether a TV preacher does it or an ex-con,” Wolery said. “Gene Scott’s bankruptcy lasted 10 days and it was a bad-faith bankruptcy as well.”

The Cultural Heritage Commission, which had been sympathetic to efforts to save the building, decided against extending the moratorium because of an ordinance requiring that meaningful progress be shown in a plan to preserve the monument. But before demolition will be allowed, further environmental impact studies are required, commissioners said.

Mark Travis, a spokesman for Gene Scott, said that the ordinance was interpreted too narrowly and that Scott’s lawyers are studying options. A. Cal Rossi, a San Francisco hotelier, voiced frustration to the commission that his proposal had been given fair consideration.

Rossi, saying he intends to preserve the church, proposed an unorthodox $23-million deal--with $16 million going to the Church of the Open Door and $7 million to Scott’s Wescott Christian Center. Wescott paid $7 million for the property before defaulting on its mortgage in mid-1986, claiming that an old trust had clouded the title.

Scott’s ministry is now suing the Church of the Open Door in hopes of recouping that money. It is one of several that have been triggered in the dispute.