NEWPORT BEACH : City to Negotiate Pact With Developer, Dealer
The City Council has approved a preliminary agreement to negotiate a deal with the Irvine Co. and Fletcher Jones Motors to keep the city’s single largest generator of sales tax on home turf.
The city will let the Irvine Co. off the hook for a $2.8-million development fee in exchange for letting the Mercedes-Benz dealer build a car lot on a nine-acre triangular swatch of land along Jamboree Road at Bristol Street, most of which is owned by the Irvine Co.
The city has 120 days to finalize the deal, which will involve separate development agreements with the dealer and the developer. As part of the agreement:
* The Irvine Co. will give the city 7.93 acres of the site--formerly designated for public use--for the car lot, after verifying that it contains no toxic or hazardous waste.
* The city will help the dealer, Fletcher Jones Jr., negotiate with Caltrans for the remaining 1.12 acres for the site.
* The city will waive $80,000 in water, sewer and other fees and split consulting fees totaling up to $124,000 with the dealer. If the dealer generates less than $2 million in sales taxes over its first five years, it must make up the city’s $142,000 outlay.
* The city will give Jones the land for a car lot. If the dealership fails or is voluntarily closed within the first 20 years, the land reverts to the city.
* The dealer will pay the city $80,000 a year for five years to fund the extension of Bayview Way from Jamboree Road to MacArthur Boulevard.
* The city will help the Irvine Co. form a financing district to fund the planned El Paseo Storm Drain project and construct the storm drain. The $2.8-million cost for the storm drain will be deducted from a $14.3-million advance the company must pay for public improvements needed to accommodate a dozen developments planned all over the city. Buyers of the planned new homes will pay for the storm drain through the district.
Fletcher Jones Sr. bought the bankrupt Jim Slemons dealership in Newport Beach in 1992 and gave it to son Fletcher Jones Jr. before the elder Jones died in June.
The Mercedes lot is the latest addition to an 11-dealership, 28-year-old auto empire. Fletcher Jones Jr. is seeking a higher-visibility site for the dealership.
