Officials Optimistic on Ahmanson Deal : Development: The deadline for closing passes, but negotiators say most glitches are resolved. They hope to seal the agreement soon.

The deadline for closing the $1-billion Ahmanson Ranch deal passed Wednesday without a final agreement, but key negotiators said they have worked out most glitches and hope to seal the deal within days.

The March 31 deadline was imposed by the National Park Service, which set aside $19.5 million to buy thousands of acres of parkland as part of the deal, and has lost up to $8,000 a day on money tied up in a non-interest-bearing escrow account.

Predicting a final agreement would emerge “within a week or so,” the president of the Ahmanson Land Co., Donald Brackenbush, said, “I think it’s going to go through.”

That optimism encouraged other parties involved in the long-awaited deal, which would result in construction of a 3,050-dwelling mini-city in the Simi Hills and the transfer of nearly 10,000 acres of mountain land to park agencies.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, expressed confidence that an agreement is imminent. He said the National Park Service has now been offered a financial incentive to keep its $19.5 million in escrow to keep the deal alive.

“It’s looking positive,” Edmiston said. “People are universally upbeat about it. No party I’ve talked to thinks it’s unresolvable.”

Although the National Park Service’s regional superintendent, David Gackenbach, declined comment Wednesday, he has previously said he would extend the deadline if negotiators “came up with . . . some kind of incentive.”

Gackenbach has complained that the park service has lost far too much money by keeping $19.5 million in escrow. He said he planned to say today whether the park service will extend its deadline.

Developers and parks officials have been working for 1 1/2 years on the deal, which requires entertainer Bob Hope to sell more than 7,000 acres of open space to state and federal park agencies in exchange for $29.5 million and a share in profits from the Ahmanson Ranch project.

Edmiston said his conversations with Gackenbach and other principals in the deal Wednesday convinced him that a final agreement could be announced as early as today.

His comments come in sharp contrast to recent forecasts that the deal was in jeopardy.

Although Ahmanson, Hope and Hope’s developer did not meet the Wednesday deadline, they have reached a provisional agreement that pays the National Park Service for keeping its funds in escrow, Edmiston said.

Past delays have surprised parks officials, who expected to close the deal by the end of January and open the new parks to the public by late spring.

Developers, parks officials and Hope all agreed to the deal’s rough outline in 1991, a year before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the parkland acquisition and Ahmanson project as a single package in December.

But since then, Hope has balked at selling his mountain ranches. Other negotiators said he fears that he will not reap income from the Ahmanson development for years, until nine lawsuits seeking to halt the project move through the courts. Another concern for Hope, negotiators said, is that the massive housing and commercial project might not be built at all, and that he would end up with $29.5 million as total compensation for giving up his mountain ranches.

Another wrinkle holding up the deal is the Board of Supervisors’ insistence that the conservancy place a deed restriction on two of Hope’s properties, Runkle Ranch and Liberty Canyon, which would preclude future development and significantly lower the land’s value.

Conservancy officials have expressed concern about the legality of paying top dollar for land with a lower value.

But Edmiston said Ahmanson has agreed to offer the conservancy a payment to make up for the lower property value, and that the money will be passed along to the park service to compensate for its losses from the prolonged escrow.

If the deal finally closes and lawsuits are resolved, the Ahmanson project will transform 2,800 acres of Ahmanson Ranch into an upscale community with 8,600 residents, a 300-room hotel, two professional quality golf courses and a town center of dozens of shops and government buildings.

In return, the deal would turn over more than 7,000 acres owned by Hope, and Ahmanson would donate about 2,600 acres, all on ranches in the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains.