Meeting Set to Save Hope Deal : Parkland: An official who helped negotiate the complicated land swap says the entertainer may decide simply to back out.

Negotiators for entertainer Bob Hope and a private developer have agreed to meet next month in an effort to keep alive a complex deal in which Hope would transfer 5,700 acres of mountain land in Los Angeles and Ventura counties to a state parks agency.

The deal was jeopardized Dec. 13 when the California Coastal Commission voted against allowing a developer to build 26 luxury houses on land Hope owns in Malibu’s Corral Canyon. Commissioners said grading for the houses would ruin an environmentally sensitive wildlife and plant habitat.

But development of the 339-acre Corral Canyon property was a financial linchpin in the elaborate scheme under which Hope would transfer acreage there and elsewhere to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which buys parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains. If it goes through, the transfer would be one of the largest parkland acquisitions in recent Southern California history.

In exchange, a developer, Potomac Investment Associates, would be given 59 acres of national parkland in Cheeseboro Canyon. That land would provide road access to Hope’s 2,300-acre Jordan Ranch in Ventura County, making it possible for Potomac to exercise its option to build 750 residences and a tournament-class golf course.

Potomac also holds an option to build residences on Hope’s Corral Canyon property. But following the Coastal Commission’s 11-1 vote against the Corral Canyon development, spokesmen for Hope and Potomac expressed doubt that the rest of the deal could be completed.

The Corral Canyon project was central to financing the whole scheme. Potomac paid $5.2 million to buy out the land’s previous option-holder, and it owes another $8 million to Hope, for a total investment of at least $13.2 million.

Potomac expected to raise at least part of the $8 million, sources close to the negotiations said, by selling 320 acres of Corral Canyon to the conservancy, which agreed to pay $9.5 million for the acreage.

But the Coastal Commission vote eliminated immediate income from the land, needed to make the payment to Hope. That led the developer to re-evaluate whether the deal can be profitable, said sources who asked to remain anonymous.

Hope would also probably have to wait at least two more years to realize any income from selling land for housing in Jordan Ranch, which still faces strong opposition from local homeowners and environmentalists.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and one of the central players in the land swap, said Hope now may simply decide to back out of it and sell his properties to other buyers.

“I think he’d rather, for his wife and for ease of execution of his estate, convert an unrealized asset into a cash asset. . . . It’s not unreasonable for someone who’s 87 to say, ‘I would like to see, before I pass away, how these . . . acres are going to be dealt with,’ ” he said.

Edmiston said Potomac and its financial backers, which include the Baltimore-based U. S. Fidelity & Guarantee insurance company, could decide to stay in the deal and renegotiate terms with Hope.

He said the conservancy will work to reshape the deal, although he is not sure what new form it might take.

Fred Maas, a Potomac vice president, said one possibility is that a “white knight” might materialize to purchase the Corral Canyon property, allowing his firm to recoup its costs. He suggested that a public or private conservation agency might do that.

“The whole thing is in serious jeopardy, but I’m very hesitant to say it’s dead because we have an obligation to a lot of really good people, including Joe Edmiston and the conservancy . . . to keep it open,” Maas said in an interview Monday.

Maas said he agreed to meet after Jan. 1 with Hope attorney Payson Wolff in an attempt to salvage the deal. Wolff could not be reached for comment, but a Hope spokesman confirmed that he will attend the meeting.