Family Ties at Issue in CRA Deal

A Los Angeles redevelopment agency manager negotiated a discount allowing a developer to repay only $6.4 million of an $11.4-million debt to the agency, after which most of that money was used to fund a separate housing project developed by the manager’s husband, officials said Tuesday.

The head of the Community Redevelopment Agency said he and CRA board members have asked the city attorney’s office to review the actions of Ayahlushim Hammond, who is project manager for the CRA’s downtown Bunker Hill Project Area, to determine whether she acted properly.

Hammond negotiated the repayment of $6.4 million from a CRA-financed housing development, and $5 million of that amount became the key CRA financing for a senior citizens center being developed as part of a separate project by her husband, developer Christopher Hammond, officials said.

Ayahlushim Hammond denied Tuesday that her actions represented a conflict of interest, saying she had no role in decisions to use the repaid loan funds for her husband’s residential project.

“I’ve never had anything to do with it,” she said.

Still, CRA Administrator Robert Ovrom said the city attorney was asked to review the matter to determine whether Hammond’s action was proper.

“I think it needs to be clarified. It’s a legitimate question,” Ovrom said.

CRA board member Doug Ring said the issue was originally brought to the board’s attention in an anonymous letter purported to be from a group of concerned CRA employees.

With the CRA board scheduled to vote Thursday on an agreement involving Christopher Hammond’s Marlton Square project, Ovrom issued a report to the CRA board this week that acknowledged there is the potential for a conflict.

“Ms. Hammond has a conflict of interest that disqualifies her from any participating in the project,” Ovrom wrote. “She will be notified to have no communication with any agency staff or official, specifically including but not limited to the staff involved in the project. To the best of my knowledge she has had no involvement with the project.”

However, Ovrom said he wants to hear from Assistant City Atty. Dov Lesel, the CRA’s legal advisor, about whether Hammond’s actions, including her role in negotiating the loan repayment, pose a problem. Hammond’s husband is a principal of Capital Vision Equities, which has received city approval to develop Marlton Square in southwest Los Angeles, which includes a 140,000-square-foot commercial center, 140 single-family homes and 180 affordable apartments for senior citizens.

Christopher Hammond, his firm, its employees and their families contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Mayor James K. Hahn’s anti-secession campaign and former Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ Assembly race. Both Hahn and Ridley-Thomas actively advocated for $38.5 million in government subsidies for Marlton Square, including the $5 million for the senior housing approved in November by the City Council.

The CRA is scheduled to decide Thursday on a master agreement spelling out the agency’s role in much of the development.

Construction has already begun on the first phase of Marlton Square, the rental housing development also identified in CRA records as the Buckingham Place Senior Housing Project.

The CRA board decided last July to finance part of Christopher Hammond’s senior housing project with a $5-million loan from the proceeds of a repayment agreement with Grand Promenade Ltd., developers of a 391-unit apartment complex in Bunker Hill built with CRA subsidies in 1987.

Grand Promenade owed $11.4 million to the CRA to cover the cost of principal and interest from an agency subsidy and had failed to make payments on the loan for 15 years. Ayahlushim Hammond negotiated a discounted repayment agreement that immediately provided the agency with $5.7 million, an agency report said. Another $737,000 was repaid a year later.

One question raised by critics of the transaction was whether her decision to give the Grand Promenade developers a discount was affected by the fact that her husband’s project was in need of funding from the financially strapped CRA.

Hammond rejected that concern, saying the agency routinely negotiates discounts on loan payments with developers so that it gets at least some of its money back.