Parks Board Rejects Offer to Purchase Riding Center

The Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners voted Monday to reject a proposal by a group of investors to purchase the debt-plagued Los Angeles Equestrian Center.

The commissioners voted 5 to 0 to deny the proposal by Western Management Associates, which has been trying for more than a year to buy the equestrian center from Gibraltar Savings. The city must approve the sale because the center was built on 70 acres leased from the city in Griffith Park.

Monday’s decision was based in part on a staff report that indicated that the investors did not supply the financial information necessary to determine whether the group actually had the money to purchase and operate the center.

According to city government documents, the sale price for the center is $6.6 million. But the exact terms of Western Management’s purchase offer were not disclosed.

Board President J. Stanley Sanders said the proposal “fell far short of what we expected” and ordered the department’s staff to explore alternatives for continued operation of the park complex, including “city management of the center.”

“I think the board made a big mistake that they will regret,” said Irvine attorney Larry Merryman, chairman of Western Management, after the vote on his bid.

Merryman acknowledged that previous stockholders in his group did not want to supply the city with personal financial information. However, he said, the board ignored another purchase proposal backed by a new set of investors that he submitted Friday. As a result, he predicted that the center would eventually be closed down.

The equestrian center has been run by Gibraltar Savings, the center’s largest creditor, since April, 1988, when the savings and loan foreclosed on J. Albert Garcia, the facility’s previous operator. Gibraltar in turn was placed in receivership by the federal government in March, 1989.

In December, Gibraltar laid off 40 employees and reduced services at the center while it looked for a buyer. Earlier this month, Gibraltar officials asked the commissioners to reduce the center’s rent from $30,000 a month to $50,000 a year to prevent further cutbacks.

Although the board has not decided what action to take, Sheldon Jensen, assistant manager of the Recreation and Parks Department’s Griffith Park region, said Monday that a rent cut was unlikely.