Condos’ Reconstruction Signals Bittersweet Close

The first residents to move back into a 71-unit condominium complex, red-tagged after the Northridge quake and finished off by the wrecking ball, were greeted with a banner and champagne Tuesday during a brief celebration at the reconstructed site.

But between the hugs and corks popping, those returning to the Franciscan Hill condominiums couldn’t help but contemplate less fortunate neighbors who faced foreclosures and an ongoing legal fight against the original developer.

A moving van rolled up to bring the furniture of Jim and Esther Bainbridge back to Unit 64, allowing them to join some four families who began moving in their belongings over the weekend.

But the couple was quick to point out that others will not return.

“We were able to survive the battle,” said Jim Bainbridge, who moved into the complex soon after its 1988 construction. “We had the financial security . . . I heard a lot of other people were on a shorter leash.”

No residents were injured at the complex by the Jan. 17, 1994 temblor but at least four people so far have lost their homes.

They were unable to keep up mortgage payments on the units, which are priced in the $150,000 range, pay their homeowners’ association dues, plus bear the burden of renting another place to live during reconstruction.

“This is such a big step for people trying to return to normalcy,” said attorney Kelly G. Richardson, who was hired by the homeowners to help plan the rebuilding. “But I don’t want to paint a pretty picture here . . . We have some people who are financially devastated.”

Last July, construction of the new units began. Homeowners used their earthquake insurance money to hire a builder. They expect most of their original neighbors to move back in by September.

But former Franciscan Hill resident Doug Hoover said he faces foreclosure because he could not keep pace with the fees engendered by the disaster. “That’s great that some people can celebrate and I wish I was out there with them,” he said at his apartment in Santa Clarita. “But I won’t be.”

Steve Daniels said he owes $5,000 in homeowners’ dues on his two-bedroom unit but does not blame the Franciscan Hill Homeowners Assn. for threatening to take his condo if he does not pay. Instead, he points the finger at the site’s original developer, the Santa Clarita Valley’s giant Newhall Land & Farming Co.

The disaster sparked two lawsuits against Newhall Land, one by residents, the other by an insurance company--State Farm--which had to pay the $15-million reconstruction costs.

The suits claim shoddy construction by Newhall Land contributed to the destruction of the 6-year-old condos.

Richardson, who is also handling the homeowners’ lawsuit, said a rush to build the condos during the real estate boom of the 1980s caused the problems.

He said Newhall Land and the homeowners enjoyed a “degree of detente” as renovation neared completion but added that the suit is going forward and could reach trial by next year.

Marlee Lauffer, a Newhall Land spokeswoman, maintained that the red-tagging was a result of the quake, not construction defects, citing quake damage to other buildings near the condos.

“If you look at what happened in the [Santa Clarita] Valley, there was widespread damage to areas near Franciscan Hills,” she said.