‘Holdover’ tenant to vacate Bob Hope Airport land, company owner says

A firm that had been leasing roughly 17 acres of Bob Hope Airport’s roughly 58-acre “B6” parcel for vehicle storage and had stayed on the property past the end of its lease earlier this year will clear out and close shop next month, its owner said.

“It is what it is,” said Sandy Bass, a Simi Valley resident who owns Affordable Storage LLC, one of three “holdover” tenants the airport had sued in April after their leases expired in March and they failed to vacate the property. “At this stage of the game, I have no choice... We will be removing ourselves ASAP.”

Earlier this month, the court sided with the airport, awarding it nearly $260,000 in holdover damages and other costs in a judgment against Affordable Storage. Bass said he doesn’t feel the judgment is fair, but on Nov. 15 he will shut the gates on the portion of the property he had been occupying.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which governs the airport, voted Monday to deny a claim for damages that Bass had submitted last month before the judgment was issued. Bass said he submitted the claim in an attempt at a “global settlement” with the airport.

However, after he submitted the claim, the authority filed a second suit against Bass for trespassing — that suit is still pending, according to an airport staff report.

The property, also known as the “Opportunity Site,” is the site of the former Lockheed B-6 plant. The airport owns it in trust and was allowed to uses it for commercial purposes for a decade under an agreement with the city, but under the terms of that agreement was required to cease such uses March 15.

Renters tried earlier this year to convince city leaders to let the airport authority continue to lease the property past the March deadline, but those efforts failed.

A suit filed against Arsual Investments, one of the other holdovers that had leased more than 5 acres for vehicle storage and stayed past the end of its lease, is also still pending, said Lucy Burghdorf, a spokeswoman for the airport who said she could not discuss details of the ongoing litigation.

A third suit, filed against Williams Pipeline Contractors Inc., has been settled, she said. The contracting firm had been leasing a 100-foot-by-200-foot lot for $1,800 a month to store construction materials, supplies and equipment, according to its lease agreement with the airport authority.

The suits had sought to order the companies off the property and called for damages equal to the rental rates under the expired leases for every day the businesses remained. Had Bass been paying rent to the authority since March 15, he would have paid out more than $450,000.

Affordable Storage began leasing five acres at the airport in 2006 for more than $19,000 a month, expanding in phases to 15 acres, for which it was paying more than $58,000 in monthly rent as of July 2009, then to 17 acres in 2014. Since 2009, the rent has been adjusted annually to track with inflation, according to the terms of the lease agreement.

Bass was also required to make an estimated $1.8 million in improvements to the 15-acre section, including repaving and striping the lot, as well as installing fencing and vehicle control gates.

Business in Burbank was good, Bass said this week, and he had hoped to continue using the property until after the airport sells it to a new owner. The entire 58-acre parcel has been marketed for sale and the airport authority recently sought best and final offers from three developers who had bid on the land.

Bass suggested his rent payments could be an income source for the new owner while awaiting entitlements to develop the property. Now, however, he plans a “mass exit” of the trucks and other vehicles on the property. He said four employees at the site will be out of work.

He still harbors hopes that once he vacates the property next month he can negotiate a settlement for something that is slightly painful for both him and the airport authority.

“If we’re both a little unhappy, then it’s a good settlement,” Bass said.

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

On Twitter: @chadgarland