Lancaster Accepts 2 Firms’ Offer of Promotional Tour to Asia : Business: The trip will be paid for by developers of a proposed commercial and retail center, who want city leaders to draw foreign interest to the project.

Hoping to lure new industries and retail shops to town, Lancaster officials have accepted a developer’s offer to take three city leaders on an all-expenses-paid 11-day promotional tour of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Property 14 Investments and Lancaster Development Co., co-owners of a 458-acre parcel of open desert at the north end of the city, extended the invitation. The companies said they want Lancaster officials to help them attract overseas investors to their property.

A local businesswoman questioned the propriety of the trip, scheduled to begin Oct 5., and one council member voted against accepting the offer.

But Mayor Frank Roberts, who will go on the Asian tour with Councilman George Runner and City Manager Jim Gilley, insisted Friday that the excursion will not influence his vote when the developer is ready to build.

“In my election campaign, I was sponsored and supported by a lot of people with a significant amount of money,” Roberts said. “And I’ve been known to vote against their projects.”

Even so, the mayor said Friday that he wasn’t entirely certain what will be expected of Lancaster officials during the tour and whether the trip will attract any Pacific Rim investors to the city.

“There’s a lot of uncertainties,” he said. “If we come back with nothing more than a little knowledge about the intrigue of dealing with that area, it will be OK.”

To expand his knowledge of Pacific Rim business practices before the trip, the mayor said he has arranged for a briefing by the director of the Center for International Trade Development.

The developers sponsoring the trip have an ambitious plans for their barren desert acreage on the west side of the Antelope Valley Freeway, between avenues G and H.

Their conceptual plan calls for construction of an international shopping complex, a 30-acre family oriented amusement center, a five-acre hotel and restaurant project and a 160-acre business and industrial park.

In addition, the developers have suggested that the remaining 210 acres--almost half of their property--could become the new home of the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

Neighbors of the current fairgrounds at East Avenue I and Division Street have complained about traffic and noise, and some city leaders believe a more remote location would solve these problems.

City officials are uncertain whether the developers want to build a new fairgrounds themselves, sell the land to the fair or donate it in exchange for infrastructure improvements, such as new streets and sewer lines.

“This is all iffy,” Roberts said.

Michael Tsai, the property owners’ representative who invited city leaders to join the Asian tour, said even he isn’t certain how the new fairgrounds might be built.

“It’s just in the discussion stage right now,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in San Mateo, Calif.

*

Tsai said the Lancaster acreage has been owned by a group of investors, primarily from the United States and Taiwan, for the past 10 years. The owners believe the time is finally right to develop the land, he said.

In his written invitation, Tsai said the purpose of the upcoming trip would be to promote Lancaster among overseas investors, to promote the developers’ project and to help city officials learn more about the developers’ proposal and their potential clients.

During the tour, Tsai said, Lancaster officials will join the developers at seminars that may be attended by up to 500 business leaders. He said the Lancaster delegates will also be able to promote the city during meetings with Pacific Rim trade groups and government officials.

In a 4-1 vote Sept. 19, the City Council, as directors of the city’s redevelopment agency, accepted the donation of the trip, including air fares, meals and hotel bills. As of Friday, city officials were still uncertain how much the gift was worth, but Assistant City Manager Dennis Davenport said the city staff had determined it was legal to accept it.

Lancaster resident Nancy Arrache objected to the tour at the recent council meeting. In an interview, she said she was afraid that council members might only promote their hosts’ property to the Asian investors, even though Lancaster has plenty of other vacant industrial land.

“I don’t know if they’re going to feel comfortable saying something positive about any location other than this piece of ground,” said Arrache, who runs a custom home-building business with her husband. “My concern is: What are the developers expecting from the city?”

Tsai said he and his associates will not stop the council members from promoting other industrial sites in Lancaster. But he added: “Hopefully, they will say some good things about our project.”

Councilwoman Deborah Shelton cast the lone vote against the Pacific Rim tour, saying residents may view it with suspicion. “I was concerned that it would be perceived by the public as being a gratuitous gift,” she said.

*

Shelton said the developers never told her about their building proposal and caught her by surprise with the tour invitation.

The councilwoman also said she was uncertain that Lancaster officials were ready to engage in complex international trade talks. “I’m just having a little trouble with it,” Shelton said. “It seems a bit too sophisticated for our little local government.”