Mansion Owners Seek $2 Million in Damages : Preservation: A group of real estate developers allegedly tried to bulldoze the landmark home illegally.
A $2-million damage suit was filed Tuesday against the real estate developers who allegedly tried to illegally demolish the McKinley Mansion, a historic Lafayette Park residence built more than 70 years ago by a Los Angeles mortuary mogul.
Filed by mansion owners Rod and Sherry Daniels of Granada Hills, the suit alleges that the developers did $2 million worth of damage last January when their workmen shoveled the handmade glazed tiles off the mansion’s roof and drove a bulldozer through the wall of its wood-paneled dining room.
The New Year’s Eve demolition attempt was halted by the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department after neighbors alerted the city that workmen were tearing down the ornate home built in 1917 by Maytor H. McKinley, who owned a chain of mortuaries in Los Angeles and other parts of the country.
In the wake of the demolition attempt, six people were charged by the city with violating numerous city codes and giving a false address on a demolition permit.
Named in the Daniels suit were John K. Kwon, Kyung J. Kwon, Sandra Park (also known as Kyung S. Park), Menashe Kozar, Ami Mor and Myong Bok Lee (also known as Jason Lee), who is a principal in Dragon Realty of Los Angeles. Phone calls were placed to the realty office, but none of the defendants could be reached for comment.
The developers wanted to build a 140-unit apartment building on the McKinley site at 310 S. Lafayette Park Place. However, the mansion, an example of Italian Renaissance architecture popular in the early 1900s, had received historical designation from the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission.
Such designations protect buildings from demolition. However, the commission allowed the Daniels couple to move the mansion when buyers willing to keep it in its present location could not be found.
The couple bought it for $1 in October, 1988, and have been working ever since to obtain financing and permits that would facilitate the move to the Monteria Estates neighborhood in Chatsworth. The 13,000-square-foot house is to be moved in four sections and must travel over 50 miles of urban roadways and be lifted over two freeways.
The Daniels couple, who plan to live in the house, have hired preservationists and architects who will restore the mansion to its original state, including reproducing its extensive gardens. Daniels estimates that the moving, restoration and purchase of the Chatsworth land will cost $4 million.
The damage done by the demolition attempt raises that cost by an additional $2 million, Daniels charged. The mansion, he said, suffered extensive water damage because of the tiles taken from its roof and the gaping hole left in one wall. The bulldozer, he said, also severely damaged two structural walls.
As an outgrowth of the McKinley Mansion demolition incident, the City Council on Monday tentatively approved an ordinance that would ban new construction on a site for five years if buildings there were illegally demolished.
