Developer Tied to Bradley Gets Pact for Major L.A. Complex

As several of Mayor Tom Bradley’s longtime allies lobbied from the sidelines, a developer who recently enlisted the influential group as partners was chosen Tuesday to build a $200-million office-retail complex on city-owned land in Little Tokyo.

A competing developer’s proposal, once viewed as a favorite in the stiff competition on the basis of its purportedly lower cost, was rejected.

The City Council’s narrow 8-5 decision to launch negotiations with First Street Plaza Partners sparked immediate criticism from some council members who said Bradley’s friends--rather than the proposed project itself--were largely responsible for the selection.

“I felt the council took into consideration all of the partners brought into it after the competition closed and it wasn’t fair,” said Councilman Marvin Braude. “I don’t see anything illegal; it’s just a question of propriety.”

‘Cronyism’ Decried

Bradley’s prospective challenger in next year’s election, meanwhile, urged the mayor to veto the selection and send a message that “cronyism” will not be tolerated at City Hall.

“The selection . . . is an affirmation that it is not what you know, but who you know that increasingly counts . . . “ said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Yaroslavsky said that to win the hotly contested competition, First Street Plaza Partners made changes in its original proposal “at the suggestion of the mayor’s office.” He said Michael Barker, managing partner of the winning development team, testified during hearings on the project that the number of proposed housing units was increased from 108 to 316 after he conferred with a Bradley aide.

A spokesman for Bradley denied there was any participation by the mayor’s office. He added that Bradley at no time stated a position on the selection of a developer.

The changes in the First Street Plaza proposal were also made after an Oct. 29, 1987, presentation deadline imposed by the city. Braude and Yaroslavsky said the fact that the Barker-led team was able to make “major enhancements” in its original proposal would undermine the credibility of the city’s bidding policies.

Braude and Yaroslavsky voted for a competing development team known as Showa Village Associates, which had been the top pick of a panel of experts to build the multifaceted project just a couple of blocks from City Hall. Showa’s selection would have been the least costly to the city, the experts concluded in a unanimous vote.

Old-Fashion Politics

But the First Street Plaza team, which fielded six prominent Bradley allies in recent months as minority partners, overcame the opinion of experts with a healthy dose of old-fashioned politics.

Sam Williams, a prominent attorney and longtime adviser to Bradley who suffered a mild stroke last December, sat in a wheel chair facing the council as it deliberated the project. A few feet from Williams stood two other Bradley advisers, Bishop H. H. Brookins of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church and businessman Danny Bakewell. Also conferring with various council members on the sidelines were Latino political leaders David C. Lizzarraga and Louis Moret.

These five, plus attorney Andy M. Camacho, committed more than $1 million toward the First Street Plaza joint venture as minority investors. Their participation was announced months after it appeared that the Showa firm was the leading contender to build the project.

After the controversial vote Tuesday, Brookins and Bakewell defended the selection and said it was fair. Brookins, however, conceded that his connections in City Hall may have been a factor.

“According to the council, they didn’t make their judgment based on (friendships),” Brookins said. “The thing I would say about it, of course, is, what’s wrong with (connections) giving an advantage?”

Bakewell, meanwhile, said that contrary to charges that he and the other Bradley supporters were latecomers to the competition, “we were in on the negotiations from the beginning. It was not a factor of something that was an end run. What had not been finalized was the structure of our participation, but it was there from the beginning.”

First Street Plaza ranked second in a field of four finalists for the lucrative project that will ultimately include a 450-room hotel, offices, housing and shops on a 7.8-acre city-owned site bounded by San Pedro, 1st, Temple and Alameda streets. One of the key elements of the project would be the shifting of some government services from two older city facilities, City Hall South and Parker Center police headquarters, to new office space.

Showa Village Associates had proposed a $194-million project that would have included an office tower for the city, a 450 to 500 room hotel and 316 residential units. Particularly attractive to the reviewing team was the fact that the Showa proposal would have cost about $3 million less in annual debt service to the city than the First Street proposal.

However, supporters on the council said the actual costs could be quite different from current estimates and, in any case, a debt ceiling established by the council two weeks ago will force First Street to keep its costs in the same range with those projected by Showa.

But Showa supporters Yaroslavsky and Braude charged that the funding ceiling unfairly gave First Street Plaza Partners a second chance to cure shortfalls in its original proposals.

Joining Yaroslavsky and Braude in opposing the selection were Council members Joan Milke Flores, John Ferraro and Hal Bernson.

Supporting the selection were council members Ernani Bernardi, Robert Farrell, Ruth Galanter, Nate Holden, Gilbert Lindsay, Joy Picus, Joel Wachs and Michael Woo. Councilwoman Gloria Molina was absent, but in past weeks she has avoided voting on the issue. Councilman Richard Alatorre, a Bradley ally, meanwhile, stepped outside during the vote. He had supported another contender.

Picus became the swing vote in the selection. After originally supporting Showa Village Associates, which received only four of a necessary eight votes, Picus switched to First Street Plaza Partners.

Picus said after the vote that “I can’t see that delaying action does anybody any good at all. Costs go up.”

She added that she did not share Braude’s concern that the winning team had benefited from an unfair process.

“This is the process of government and if it’s within the appropriate framework, then that’s it.”