Equestrian Center : L.A. Approves Rate Hike for Stall Rentals

The Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners on Monday approved a controversial boost in the rental rates for horse stalls at the debt-ridden Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Griffith Park.

The increases, which board members said are needed to help ease the center’s financial burdens, will be as high as $36 a month for some stalls and are effective immediately.

Some horse boarders had opposed the increases at previous board meetings, saying they were being “priced out” of the center and were being unfairly singled out to help the facility become profitable.

However, just before the board’s vote, many boarders said they favor the increase as long as the center continues operating.

Richard J. Riordan, vice president of the five-member board, said the increases are essential to keep the center running until another operator can take over. “This will help make it a viable center for the next five years,” he said.

Run by Creditor

The center is being run by Gibraltar Savings of Beverly Hills, which plans to sell the facility within four months. Gibraltar, the center’s largest creditor, took over the center in April, 1988, after it foreclosed on J. Albert Garcia, the previous operator.

The 73-acre complex, most of which is in Los Angeles but whose entrance is in Burbank, is more than $2 million in debt. Dean W. Harrison, general counsel for Gibraltar, said the center is losing from $80,000 to $100,000 a month. He said stall rates had not gone up in two years.

The rental rates on fully outfitted barn stalls will go from $320 to $356 a month. The rates on polo horse stalls will go from $250 to $275 a month and on open-air stalls from $240 to $260 a month.

The increases were slightly less than Gibraltar requested in December when it first brought the proposal before the board.

Firm on Increases

After complaints from horse boarders, the board told Gibraltar to come back with alternatives to the increases. But Gibraltar maintained Monday that raises are still necessary.

To further ease the burden, the board approved an amendment to Gibraltar’s contract that will decrease the rental payments that the operators are required to pay the city of Los Angeles, which owns the land. Instead of monthly payments that could reach $50,000 based on a percentage of the center’s revenues, the operators will only have to pay a yearly rental fee of $50,000.

Earlier this month, Garcia and his financial backers filed a $200-million lawsuit against the board, the city of Los Angeles and other Los Angeles officials in Glendale Superior Court. The suit accuses the city of ruining Garcia’s plans to make the center profitable.

The city backed out of an agreement in which he would be allowed to convert rental stalls into “horse condos,” Garcia said. Under that plan, horse owners would have bought the stalls, but the city said it would be improper to sell park property.