Council OKs $464,000 Building Lease

The Los Angeles City Council approved a three-year, $464,000 lease of a commercial building in Van Nuys on Tuesday, despite concerns by some members that the city owns facilities with unused office space elsewhere.

Councilman Joel Wachs questioned why the city Planning Department wanted to lease 9,350 square feet in an office building on Van Nuys Boulevard when the Department of Water and Power has 76,000 square feet of unused office space in Sun Valley, as well as other vacancies closer to Van Nuys.

Wachs noted that the City Council asked the DWP last year to take its vacant space in the Anthony Office Building off the market so that the city could try to negotiate a deal for use of the building for other city agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department.

“The point that is being made is the city prevailed upon the Department of Water and Power not to either sell or rent out that space, so they are holding it empty and not getting revenue they could from tenants who are interested,” Wachs said.

“And yet we are not using it and we are now going out and using other private properties,” he added.

Reginald Jones-Sawyer, an assets manager for the city’s General Services Department, said the Planning Department likes the building it is in and wants a new lease there because it is centrally located in the Valley and it would be expensive to move its equipment to another building.

“Principally why we are here is it’s close to the [Van Nuys] Civic Center and it’s close to where Building and Safety [Department] and other permit people are right now,” Jones-Sawyer said.

Jones-Sawyer also said the private landlord is charging $1.38 per square foot, while the DWP is asking for $1.68 per square foot for surplus space it has in an office nearby on Oxnard Street.

Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton, meanwhile, said he is hoping to wrap up negotiations with the DWP within 60 days on the use of the Anthony Office Building’s vacant space by the LAPD.

Wachs voted with the rest of the council to approve the Van Nuys lease, but asked for a quick resolution to the negotiations for use of the vacant space in the DWP building. Talks have been going on for more than six months, during which 25% of the high-rise has been without a tenant.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg questioned another lease approved Tuesday--a 10-year, $2.6-million deal for space in the county courthouse on La Cienega Boulevard to be used by the city attorney’s office.

Goldberg said the city might be able to get a lease for less than the $2.19 per square foot being charged by the county if it moved a mile to a neighborhood where real estate is less expensive.

However, Deaton said the attorneys want to be inside the airport-area courthouse on La Cienega, and cited higher costs associated with moving away from the courthouse.

The council also approved a lease Tuesday that would move the Planning Commission’s meetings in the San Fernando Valley from the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club to the Airtel Plaza Hotel.

The $12,600 annual lease was sought by the Planning Commission out of dissatisfaction with the club’s management.

“There is no longer a permanent facilities manager, the facility is often dirty and the doors are often locked on meeting days,” said a city report summarizing the commission’s complaints.