Japanese Firm’s Marina Bid Is Approved : Real Estate: County approves the sale of a yacht center lease to Yamaha despite one official’s protest.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a Japanese corporation’s bid to lease a Marina del Rey yacht center, despite earlier protests from one county official that public assets should not be controlled by foreigners.

The board Tuesday unanimously approved the transfer of a 32-year lease on the Aggie Cal Yacht Center to a subsidiary of Yamaha Motors U.S., making it the first foreign firm to have a controlling interest in Marina property.

Yamaha will pay current owner Marjorie Agajanian $5.1 million for 115 boat slips, a boat showroom, a storage area and a parking lot on Fiji Way.

Marina del Rey’s 800 acres of land and water are owned by the county and developed by private companies under long-term leases that can be bought and sold much like conventional real estate.

Lease transfers must be approved by the board, which validated Yamaha’s takeover of the 7.2-acre Aggie Cal property without discussion.

Herbert Strickstein, a member of the county’s Small Craft Harbor Commission, had argued that marina leaseholds should not be controlled by foreign firms. At a meeting June 13, he cast the lone vote against the transfer.

“I didn’t care whether the foreign-national corporation was English, Syrian, Israeli or what,” Strickstein said in an interview after Tuesday’s vote. “I objected to a foreign-owned company owning a majority interest in a marina leasehold . . . on public land.”

The county’s lawyers have argued, however, that the county has no legal grounds to prohibit foreign investment in the marina.

The county does not share in the proceeds from the multimillion-dollar property deal, because the original lease had no provision requiring a cut for the county. The county will receive $14,000 in processing fees in the Aggie Cal deal.

While Yamaha will be the first overseas firm to control a marina site, foreign investors have minority interests in other leaseholds.

Last summer, two Saudi Arabian businessmen and arms brokers with close ties to the Saudi royal family led a group of Middle Eastern investors in purchasing a 49.9% interest in the marina empire of developer Abraham M. Lurie. The properties include hotels, apartment complexes, office buildings, shops, restaurants and more than 1,000 boat slips.

Two Japanese companies have invested in the construction of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel that is scheduled to open at the marina this fall.