Robbins Sued Over Property Purchase : Dispute: A businessman alleges that Robbins threatened to use political clout to prevent him from developing acreage near Marina del Rey. Robbins denies trying to thwart the deal.

State Sen. Alan Robbins warned a Newport Beach businessman trying to buy and develop choice property near Marina del Rey that he “would never get” a crucial government permit because the lawmaker wanted to acquire the land himself, the businessman has charged in court papers.

Robert Blake also said Robbins (D-Tarzana) boasted that he had former Los Angeles City Council President Pat Russell “tied up” in connection with his efforts from 1985 to 1987 to buy 16 acres located along Lincoln Boulevard. The property is subject to city planning rules.

Blake’s allegations are contained in documents filed recently as part of a complex web of civil lawsuits involving Blake, Robbins and a wealthy La Jolla car dealer, Jeremy Simms. The three were partners in a 3,800-acre parcel of Ventura County land that sold last year for $22 million. The profits from the sale also are a subject of the suits.

The litigation--which already includes enough paper work to form a stack more than three feet high--recently prompted the state attorney general’s office to reopen a 1988 investigation that cleared Robbins of allegations that he illegally used campaign funds to help finance the Ventura County deal.

No trial dates have been set in the suits, the bulk of which are pending in Santa Monica Superior Court.

In an interview, Robbins denied that he tried to thwart Blake over the Lincoln Boulevard land. He said he didn’t even meet Blake until after he, Robbins, had signed a deal to purchase the first group of properties he wanted.

According to court documents, Robbins and a different partner purchased the land for $12.2 million and sold it last year for a reported $45 million.

The veteran lawmaker amassed a considerable fortune before and during his 17 years in the state Senate. He is a lawyer and licensed real estate broker, and he and a succession of partners have financed apartment complexes, medical buildings and office towers.

Blake said in court papers that Robbins complained that Blake’s attempts to buy the land were “messing up” efforts by Robbins’ firm, Marina East Holding Properties, to acquire it.

Blake said Robbins told him the property could be developed only if the successful buyer “got a left-turn lane authorized for entrance and various other governmental approvals.”

“He added that if I got the property, and his group lost it, I would never get the left-hand turn lane and might have a difficult time in obtaining other required approvals,” Blake said in court papers. “He told me that if we took the property from him, he would make sure it would not be worth our while.”

Robbins said, however, that the property Blake was trying to buy actually was a different property, adjacent to parcels Robbins already had signed deals to acquire.

He said Blake wanted to erect a hotel on the land and asked Robbins for permission to build a driveway through Robbins’ lots. The lawmaker agreed, but Blake was never able to carry out the hotel deal, Robbins said.

“What we negotiated about him buying was access to private property,” Robbins said.

Former City Council President Russell, who was defeated for reelection in 1987, laughed when told of Blake’s charge as it related to her. She said she talked to Robbins about the land only after he purchased it and that she “would have blown a fuse” if the lawmaker had tried to enlist her political influence to cripple Blake’s efforts.

“Most people would laugh at the idea that Robbins had me tied up,” she said. “I think I still have a reputation that you can’t get me tied up.”

Blake said he eventually dropped his bid for the Lincoln Boulevard property and Robbins offered to provide him with “various profitable business opportunities.”

In 1986, Blake became a partner with Robbins and Simms in a company that owned the Ventura County acreage, he said. The land, near Moorpark, was once part of the Strathearn cattle ranch.

In court papers, a lawyer for Simms, the car dealer, said Robbins “brought Blake into the Moorpark deal to get rid of him in the Marina deal.”

Robbins and Simms purchased the Strathearn property in 1985, buying out a previous owner who paid $300,000 for it. But last year, they filed suit against each other after the ranch was sold to another firm for about $22 million.

Simms’ lawyer said in court papers that Robbins withdrew from the Strathearn project and agreed to relinquish his share of profits in it in early 1988, when the state was investigating whether he had improperly benefited by loaning campaign funds to political and business associates, including Blake.

Robbins was cleared of any wrongdoing in March, 1988, after telling state investigators that he had no equity interest in the ranchland and therefore could not have benefited from loans to Blake, his erstwhile partner in the property.

However, state Assistant Atty. Gen. N. Eugene Hill said his office reopened its probe after Robbins claimed in a lawsuit he filed against Simms last August that he still is entitled to some profits from the ranch’s sale.

“He alleges an interest that was inconsistent . . . with the statements that were made to us” during the earlier investigation, Hill said. He said his office was informed of Robbins’ new claim by a lawyer for Simms.

If convicted of having used campaign funds for personal gain, Robbins would be subject to a fine of twice the amount of the misused money.

Robbins said he should share in the ranch profits because after he withdrew from the deal in 1988, he lent Simms $1.4 million to help prepare the land for development.

In court documents, Robbins’ lawyer characterized the lawmaker’s 1988 withdrawal from the Strathearn deal as a “short-term break” in a four-year partnership between him and Simms in the land deal.

The lawmaker said he is confident that he will be cleared again of any improprieties.