Treasure Island Deal Developing

City officials’ recent trip to New York to discuss the redevelopment of Treasure Island Mobilehome Park with the landowners’ representatives may have narrowed the gap between the type of development city leaders envision at the site and the proposals submitted thus far, Mayor Paul P. Freeman said.

Freeman and City Manager Kenneth C. Frank met in New York on Monday with John Steffens, vice-chairman of Merrill Lynch, and Jack Cuneo, president of Merrill Lynch Hubbard, to discuss ways to expedite the project. Merrill Lynch Hubbard, the real estate division of Merrill Lynch, heads the partnership that owns the land.

The landowners recently submitted their third proposal for the prime ocean bluff parcel, which calls for the development of 97 homes and a hotel with 90 to 100 rooms. The original plan was for 268 homes and a 300-room hotel.

Freeman said the newest plan “focuses on residences [while] the hotel looks like an afterthought.”

“We want it to be just the other way around,” he said. “It was important to try and narrow that gap a bit, and I think we accomplished that.” The trip cost the city about $1,300, he said.

City officials have said they are eager to expedite the project, which is expected to generate tax revenues for the city and provide public access to the site. While council members say they want to remain flexible about the development, Freeman said there is some consensus of opinion about how the land should be used.

“I think we’re all of a mind that, as the proposal is presented, there’s too little acreage devoted to the resort and there’s too few public amenities we can discern,” he said.

Freeman said Merrill Lynch Hubbard plans to sell the property to another developer, and city officials want to make sure their goals are being translated to prospective buyers.

“Our focus is, we want the right kind of process with the right kind of people, and we only want to go through this once,” he said. Development should be underway by sometime in 1998, he said.