New Bids Delay Choice of City Hall : Offices: Three property owners reduce their lease prices in last-minute hopes of getting the city as a tenant.

In last-ditch attempts to grab a major tenant, three hopeful landlords submitted revised bids on office space to the Malibu City Council this week, only hours before the council was scheduled to choose new rented quarters to serve as City Hall.

So much for the diligently prepared matrix that City Manager Ray Taylor had provided to compare the existing bids. And so much for Taylor’s hope that a decision would be made before he leaves his post later this month for a similar job in Westlake Village.

The council decided Monday night to table the City Hall issue until January so it could review the new information. The new city manager, David Carmany of Agoura Hills, will begin Feb. 1 in Malibu. He was in the audience at Monday’s meeting.

Taylor told council members they have the “opportunity to see the cards on the table now that they’re played.”

“This only serves to enhance our position,” he said.

Councilman John Harlow credited a story in The Times on Sunday with providing the impetus for the late revisions. After seeing the story, he said, three prospective landlords lowered their bids.

Included was a bid from the current landlord in Malibu Professional Park on Stuart Ranch Road. Earlier, owner Thomas Wong had made an offer to the city but rescinded it when the council did not respond within one week, Taylor said.

The city now pays $2.50 per square foot for 2,550 square feet of office space. Wong’s revised offer comes in at $1.67 when averaged over five years, Taylor said. It includes an additional 1,500 square feet to meet the city’s expanding needs.

Taylor said Wong expressed a “strong interest in retaining the city, and his bid reflects that.” Wong could not be reached for comment.

The owner of another potential City Hall site, the Point Dume Professional Building on Portshead Road at Pacific Coast Highway, also submitted a lower bid Monday, dropping from $1.91 per square foot to $1.76.

Los Angeles County, which is offering to lease space to the city at its Malibu Sheriff’s Station office for $1.98 per square foot, has not submitted a revision. Taylor said, however, that the comparative price there is actually $1.63 because the county has offered 1,000 square feet of common space without charge.

Space is available there now because many deputies and administrators recently moved to the nearby Lost Hills station.

Another prospective landlord, CenFed Bank, on Monday reduced its price for space at the closed Civic Center branch to $2.16 from $2.49.

Taylor said there is no legal requirement that the bidding process be closed at a certain time, although he doubted the council would accept any beyond the Jan. 4 “drop-dead” date. He said he will notify all bidders of the revisions.

He said the delay is a “healthy” development that typically happens in real estate transactions among competing interests.