County Set to OK Marina del Rey Apartments Plan

A remade Marina del Rey--one decked out with new high-rises, additional shopping centers and entertainment complexes--is expected to move closer to reality today, when the Board of Supervisors is set to permit one of its staunchest campaign contributors to build a new luxury apartment building.

The scheduled action is in the form of two related matters. First, the board is scheduled to consider a motion that would change the zoning on the parcel of land held by developer Jona Goldrich, which would permit construction of the new building. Then, supervisors plan to go into executive session to discuss an extension on Goldrich’s exclusive lease on the 2.2 acres of public property, keeping it in his control through 2061.

The zoning change not only would bring the parcel in line with neighboring residential properties, it also would enhance the value of the lease. Currently zoned for marine commercial use, the land holds only a yacht club, a small office building and parking lots. If he gets the zoning changed to residential, Goldrich plans to build a 99-unit apartment complex with 10% low-income senior housing. The new complex also would include a refurbished club.

The supervisors have received more than $9,000 in contributions from Goldrich over the past five years.

They are expected to charge the developer a $460,000 lease fee for the change in value, county officials said, though opponents have long objected to Goldrich’s deals with the county, arguing that the government is not getting enough for the valuable marina property.

Technical aspects of the lease extension remain under discussion, and county officials said the extension is not likely to receive final approval today. Both sides say the extension is needed to spur redevelopment of the land.

And both sides argue that the chronic shortage of Westside housing and the looming Playa Vista project make it imperative to redevelop the marina.

“It’s just now kind of an asphalt jungle, and what’s on it is old, tired and antiquated,” said Sherman Gardner, a partner in the project.

“I think everybody will be happy” when it is finished, he added. “They’ll look at it with pride.”

Some residents of the area disagree.

“It violates the public trust,” marina dweller Carla Andrus told supervisors last week. “This isn’t real estate for development. This is public land for all of us.”

The zoning change would clear the way for the first of several projects heading for approval by supervisors. Together, they would remake the marina into a high-rise waterfront district featuring residential units, shopping areas and entertainment venues.

The plan includes a waterfront promenade and additional pocket parks, as well as clusters of new businesses, a luxury hotel that could reach 22 stories, and enlarged boat slips to serve the posher and buffed-up boats of the SUV age. Officials in the county’s Department of Beaches and Harbors estimate that as many as 20 parcels could ultimately be redeveloped.

The county has solicited bids on some of those parcels. But much of the work would be by developers such as Goldrich, who have long- standing connections to county supervisors and exclusive rights to public land that has never been competitively bid.

Those developers’ leases will be extended as part of the development, officials say. Earlier this year, supervisors granted a similar extension to another developer, Doug Ring, whose plan to redevelop his property by virtually tripling the size of his current apartment buildings is expected to come before supervisors soon. Ring is a longtime lobbyist and campaign contributor to the county supervisors, and is married to a member of the Los Angeles City Council.

County officials argue that, without lease extensions, tenants would have no incentive to redevelop and the area will go to seed.

But the flurry of activity has alarmed some residents, who say it will create a congested, exclusive playground.

“Their theory is to turn it into a gated corporate community,” charged project opponent John Davis, a member of the recently formed Coalition to Save the Marina, which vows to go to court to block the projects.

Roger Moliere, the official at the county’s Beaches and Harbors Department overseeing the redevelopment plan, said the opposite is true. He stressed that each rebuilt property will be required to have a waterfront promenade for the public, and that additional parks and green space would be built on undeveloped areas. He said the county ultimately even hopes to build a day-care center.

“I can understand people’s fear of change,” Moliere said. But the Marina needs to “look really modern. . . . It’s getting a bit older.”

The marina dates to the 1960s, when the county built it out of swampland through a bond issue and granted the first leases, most of which have a 60-year life and do not expire until the 2020s.

Still, supervisors have said leases must be extended now because otherwise the developers would not be able to secure the long-term financing needed for improvements. Goldrich won the first such lease extension in 1992 on an 18-acre parcel. Today, he is finishing the second of two apartment buildings on that land.

Because the latest extension remains under negotiation, Moliere said he could not discuss it in detail. But, when asked about the value the zoning change gives to the land, Moliere said the county plans to charge Goldrich a $460,000 lease fee.

That sum reflects the increase in the value of the land minus the money Goldrich would have to spend to redevelop it, Moliere said.

Goldrich said that he is eager to redevelop his parcel, but that he could not do so if his hold on the land were not extended well into the new century.

“We’ve got to recoup our investment,” he said.

He stressed that taxpayers will benefit from his projects because under the terms of his lease, the county gets 10.5% of all rent his buildings generate, as well as money from rent on renovated boat slips.

And Goldrich said he saw nothing wrong in his political contributions to supervisors, noting that he has long been active in politics.

“It’s very important to us that the county’s run right,” he said, “and to have the right candidates there.”

According to campaign records, Goldrich’s development company has given $2,750 to the various political committees of Supervisor Don Knabe, whose district includes the marina, over the past five years; $2,325 to those of Supervisor Mike Antonovich; $3,000 to those of Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke; $750 to those of Supervisor Gloria Molina and $500 to those of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

Goldrich’s contributions are in keeping with the small group of lessees in the marina who are extensive contributors to supervisors’ campaigns.

The Times reported in 1992 that the county was receiving significantly less than it should for such prime waterfront property on Los Angeles’ Westside.

A retired UCLA business professor and prominent real estate expert, Fred Case, estimated that the marina property could be worth as much as $1.4 billion and said the county should be receiving a return of at least $50 million, twice the current amount.

The county has contested that evaluation, saying it is driving the hardest bargain it can. For years, Molina was the lone dissenter to marina leases, but she joined the rest of the board approving a lease extension earlier this year, saying changes in the county’s approach appeared to make it a good deal for the taxpayers.

Last week, Molina delayed approval of the zone change, citing unresolved questions about the project.