Port Officials Seek Bids for Shipyard’s Assets : Harbor: Sale would make site available for other uses. But some say that it would permanently bar its use for repair work, which they say would generate jobs.

The Los Angeles Harbor Department has invited proposals from bidders interested in purchasing the assets of the defunct Todd Shipyards in San Pedro--a move that, if completed, will probably end prospects for reopening the 110-acre site for shipbuilding or ship repair.

The port’s action, taken last week, is a first step toward liquidating an estimated $6 million in shipyard assets ranging from office equipment to cranes.

Port officials said they made the move because the site, closed by Todd in August, 1989, remains unused, and the department cannot wait longer for potential tenants to prove their ability to reopen the property as a shipyard.

But some are criticizing the action, among them retired Rear Adm. Stuart Platt, chairman of a fledgling ship repair company that has been trying--so far unsuccessfully--to lease the site from the port.

Platt and others--including leaders of the local shipbuilders’ union--have said reopening the site as a shipyard could generate several hundred jobs immediately and employment for about 2,000 workers within several years. The port’s invitation for proposals, he said, is a step in the wrong direction.

“It’s an action we anticipated, but it’s not in the public’s interest,” said Platt, chairman of Los Angeles-Long Beach Shipyards Co.

Port officials say that although various groups of investors have talked about reopening the former Todd site, none has proven it has the capital--and potential business--to be successful.

“They have certainly (tried) to put together the necessary capital to bring in a business. You have to give them an A for effort,” said Mike Lemke, the port’s property manager. “(But) at some point in time, these kinds of decisions (to sell off the property’s assets) have to be made.”

Lemke added: “It’s certainly not an easy decision. But there doesn’t seem to be any alternative.”

The port is asking 60 to 65 companies and individuals to submit cash offers for the site’s assets. Those proposals, which must be submitted to the port by Aug. 13, are scheduled to be reviewed by the five-member Harbor Commission at its Sept. 9 meeting.

Port officials have said that sale of the shipyard assets will make the former Todd site available for other uses, such as a container yard or automobile storage facility. Opponents, however, contend that the waterfront property would be best used as a shipyard--and that sale of the assets will irrevocably foreclose that option.

“If the yard doesn’t have any equipment, it will be impossible for anybody to do anything” about a shipyard at the site, said John Stupakis, chief executive officer of Los Angeles Shipyard Corp., another start-up venture seeking to lease the site. “And to sell the equipment for scrap would be a tragedy.”