City Land Sale to Help Finance Arts Center

The city has sold a 1.4-acre piece of land at Hoover Street and Westminster Boulevard, the site of an aging school auditorium, for $630,000.

Proceeds from the deal will help finance a new $6-million cultural arts center and theater that the city has been planning for years, officials said.

A second component of the deal, the sale of an adjacent four-acre parcel, has fallen through, City Manager Bill Smith said.

Officials had been negotiating with Delma Corp., a Huntington Beach-based developer, which had agreed to pay from $1 million to $1.5 million for both parcels of land.

The City Council deadlocked 2 to 2 on the proposal, however. Opposing members said that the city should hold out for more money.

Delma later withdrew its offer for the four-acre parcel, agreeing only to buy the 1.4-acre auditorium site. The company plans to build an 80-bed care facility for elderly residents there.

The four-acre parcel was bought by the city in 1983 for a senior citizens housing project. At that time, the city agreed to lease the land for $100 a year for 55 years to Delma Corp., which built an apartment complex there in 1984.

Smith had recommended that the land be sold to the developer, he said, because the city’s lease agreement makes it essentially worthless to the city for at least 45 more years.