Developer, County Agree on Marina Project : Playa Vista: The deal is crucial to plans for a vast ‘city within a city.’ It’s estimated that the county will get between $50 million and $60 million for granting access to water, plus revenue from boat slips.

After years of behind-the-scenes bargaining, Los Angeles County negotiators and the developer of the massive Playa Vista project have reached agreement on construction of a new yacht harbor next to Marina del Rey.

The agreement, which must be ratified by the County Board of Supervisors, would allow developer Maguire Thomas Partners to carve a new boat channel to Santa Monica Bay across a narrow piece of county-owned land in Marina del Rey.

The new channel is crucial to Maguire Thomas dreams of transforming 139 acres of barren land south of the existing marina into a vastly more valuable waterfront community.

Without the water access, the developer cannot realize its plans for a multibillion-dollar marina community of residences, offices, shops, hotel rooms and 700 boat slips.

The highly complex deal, known as a memorandum of understanding, spells out for the first time the price Maguire Thomas must pay for access to the water. And it paints a dramatically different picture of an exclusive marina community than has been seen before.

The latest concept proposes construction of 2,576 condominium and apartment units--more than double the previous number. The huge increase in residential units will be achieved by eliminating 75% of the 1,800 hotel rooms that had been planned for the property but are no longer considered economically feasible in an area saturated with hotels. The amount of planned retail space has been sharply reduced and 125,000 square feet of office space has been added.

About 15% of the residential units would be designated “affordable” to persons of middle income. But the condominiums would be expensive, ranging from an average of $475,000 for a courtyard unit to $2 million for a townhouse on a residential island in the new harbor, according to county figures.

The new development plan, coupled with the high-stakes financial aspects of the deal, could prove to be controversial when the county’s Small Craft Harbor Commission considers the package at a meeting Wednesday morning in Marina del Rey.

Under the agreement, Maguire Thomas will pay the county three ways for the privilege of buying 1.8 acres of public land for the crucial cut-through to the existing Marina del Rey boat channel.

First, the developer will pay fair market value for the property, now home to the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, a U.S. Coast Guard facility and the Marina substation of the county Sheriff’s Department. Some or all of the government agencies would be relocated to the adjacent Playa Vista property.

Maguire Thomas will give the county 14.1 acres of private land where the county would build a new marina with 350 boat slips. The developer will pay the cost of constructing the northern part of the marina, but both sides hope that the arrangement will make the project eligible for state financing at below-market interest rates.

Once completed, the county would own the marina property and lease it exclusively to Maguire Thomas for 99 years. The county would earn a share of the income from the boat slips after the first 20 years.

The developer would also pay the county $25 million plus interest over a 30-year period for the increased value to the Playa Vista property that will result from access to the water.

And Maguire Thomas will assist the county in paying the costs of measures to ease traffic congestion in the area, a key concern of county officials who want to encourage intensive redevelopment of Marina del Rey.

In exchange, the county will agree to move forward with consideration of Maguire Thomas’ plans for construction of the marina piece of the vast Playa Vista project--one of the biggest developments in Los Angeles history.

A new city-within-a-city with more than 13,000 residential units, 5 million square feet of offices and 1,050 hotel rooms is planned for the 887-acres of open land between Marina del Rey and the Westchester Bluffs--land once owned by eccentric industrialist Howard Hughes. The tract includes the 260-acre Ballona Wetlands, which are to be restored and preserved as open space.

However, no construction could begin on the new marina until the county approves an environmental impact report, specific development plans, a revised coastal plan, and a resolution is reached in a longstanding lawsuit over protection of the wetlands. State and federal approvals also would be needed.

Construction is not expected on any part of Playa Vista for at least another year. Work on the new marina would not start before 1994.

The county’s chief negotiator, Ted Reed, director of the Department of Beaches and Harbors, estimated that the county will receive between $50 million and $60 million from the marina deal, plus long-range income from the boat slips.

“The financial terms are fair and provide the county with a guaranteed stream of income for a considerable period of time,” Reed said.

He said the “extraordinarily complex document” is the culmination of more than two years of closed-door negotiations with Maguire Thomas, which took over the Playa Vista project from Hughes’ Summa Corp. in February, 1989.

Maguire Thomas senior partner Nelson Rising hailed the agreement as a “very, very attractive package for the county” and a beneficial one for the developer, because it will move the Playa Vista project closer to reality.

Rising said the county will be “getting a new marina at zero cost to them,” plus the income from boat slips for years to come.

For motorists, Rising said, there will be an added benefit of the new marina--being able to see the water and the boats while driving along what is now a bleak stretch of Lincoln Boulevard. “Right now, driving down Lincoln, you might as well be in Fontana,” he joked.