Elder Begins Bid to Reopen Old Todd Yard : San Pedro: Assemblyman wants the state to help find a new shipbuilder for the site. He asks the port to delay selling the property’s assets.

Assemblyman Dave Elder on Friday launched a two-prong effort to reopen the old Todd Shipyards in San Pedro, calling for the state to assist in finding a new shipbuilder for the site and urging the port to postpone the sale of the property’s assets.

The actions by the San Pedro Democrat came on the heels of last week’s announcement that the Harbor Commission this week will consider selling off the shipyard’s assets, a move that would all but doom current plans by two fledging companies to reopen the 110-acre site for shipbuilding or repair.

In a letter sent Friday to Harbor Commission President Ronald S. Lushing, Elder said he was dismayed to hear of the port’s plans and urged the commission to delay for six months any sale of the shipyard’s buildings, cranes and other equipment. The delay, he said, could provide “one last opportunity” to find a shipyard for the facility.

Noting that the 80-year-old yard once employed about 6,000 workers, Elder said many former Todd employees have been unemployed since the shipyard closed its gates in August, 1989.

“They would undoubtedly like nothing better than to dust off their lunch boxes and return to the work they know best, repairing or building ships,” Elder wrote.

Port spokeswoman Julia Nagano said harbor officials will have no comment on Elder’s request before Wednesday’s meeting. After Todd closed in 1989, the port took over the shipyard’s assets as part of a settlement against the company involving environmental cleanup of the site.

In recent weeks, port officials have said that their two-year commitment to reopening the site as a shipyard has been frustrated by the inability to find a suitable tenant. A port report issued Friday said that officials have held discussions with at least nine companies interested in the site but that none have met the port’s financial requirements.

Port officials say they have no alternative but to begin considering the sale of the property’s assets. The assets were appraised at $6 million to $9 million in 1990, excluding an unmovable ship repair platform built in 1982 at a cost of $50 million.

But Elder said the port has been too demanding and inflexible, requiring hefty financial commitments at a time of national recession and fierce economic competition in the shipbuilding industry.

Moreover, Elder said in an interview, the port should not be more concerned with its financial return on the site than in finding a company that might provide employment for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ship workers.

Elder said he will also introduce a measure asking the State Lands Commission to work with the port at reopening the site as a shipyard.

“There are a lot of people interested in opening the yard, and I just think we have to put together a package that works in terms of the economics,” Elder said. “I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to make this happen. . . . We are going to get that thing opened again or die trying.”