Judge Orders Receivership for Marina Club : Courts: He puts caretaker in charge of condominium complex in Marina del Rey after developer defaults on loan.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered the appointment of a receiver to immediately take over the high-rise Marina City Club complex in Marina del Rey after developer Jerome Snyder defaulted on a $24-million loan from Aetna Life Insurance Co.

The order, signed by Judge Robert H. O’Brien, placed the receiver in charge of managing the waterfront development, which includes condominiums, apartments, boat slips, an athletic club and restaurant.

The court also granted a preliminary injunction barring Snyder’s firm, J. H. Snyder Co., from interfering in operations of the Marina City Club and ordered Snyder to turn over financial records to receiver Richard S. Hamilton of Van Nuys.

Aetna filed suit last month seeking to foreclose on the project because of Snyder’s failure to make $1.2 million in loan payments to the insurance company since January.

The receivership is the latest in a series of financial problems at the only condominium project in county-owned Marina del Rey.

Snyder, a major Los Angeles developer with large office and residential projects throughout Southern California, blamed financial problems at the project on a slowdown in the sales of condominiums in the distinctive, circular Marina City Club towers.

“We just ran short,” he said. “Aetna decided to protect themselves. . . . They put a receiver on the property to manage the money. They will be operating it unless we can come to some accommodation.”

Snyder said he has been negotiating with Aetna to restructure his loan on the project but has been unsuccessful. Nearly 90% of the 600 condominium units have been sold for a total of $166 million.

But Marina City Club’s problems mounted as the recession deepened and condominium sales slowed almost to a halt during the winter.

In addition to defaulting on his loan payments to Aetna, Snyder has failed since November to pay his rent to Los Angeles County for use of the waterfront property. The entire marina is owned by the county and businesses operate there under long-term leases.

Starting last month, Aetna stepped in and paid about $720,000 in delinquent rent. Attorneys for the company said they acted to avoid a default that could have cost Snyder his 76-year lease.

In an interview, Snyder acknowledged that the loan is in default. He said the solution to the financial woes affecting the marina project is an auction of the remaining 60 condominiums planned for June.

When the condominiums are sold, Snyder said the project’s apartments and boat slips will perform “very nicely.” He is negotiating with county officials to reduce the rent he pays for an athletic club on the property.

“The auction should give us the ability to bring everybody current and get rid of the (financial) drain,” he said.

Snyder said financial difficulties at Marina City Club have “absolutely not” affected his other real estate holdings, including the Channel Gateway project just outside the marina, the Water Garden development in Santa Monica and several office projects in the Mid-Wilshire area.

The Marina City Club complex was built in the early 1970s by a partnership that included the late industrialist Howard Hughes. Snyder and associates took over in December, 1986, and converted the high-rise apartments to condominiums.