Boys & Girls Club gets new 48-year lease for Eastside Costa Mesa site

The Costa Mesa City Council approved a new lease for the local Boys & Girls Club this week, allowing the nonprofit to stay in its Eastside home until November 2064.

Under the lease approved at Tuesday’s council meeting, the Boys & Girls Club of the Harbor Area will pay $1 a year in rent to operate its Lou Yantorn branch on city-owned property at 2131 Tustin Ave. The 48-year lease will start Nov. 14, after the current one expires.

Under the new terms, the club will be required to pour at least $750,000 into the property over the next five years for maintenance and improvements.

The lease also requires the club to make additional investments of at least $50,000 every 10 years thereafter.

Requiring the ongoing investments for maintenance will “prevent the facility from becoming dilapidated,” said Assistant Chief Executive Rick Francis.

“Our take is that, with continual upkeep and continual investment, the property will never get to a point where it’s so far gone that we need to put these huge infusions of cash” into it, Francis said.

The lease also includes new language to “bolster compliance with maintenance standards” and make it clear the city will “enforce standards of performance and upkeep of the building,” Francis said.

“Would I have liked to have had more minimum contributions or more money spent on capital improvements? Yeah, but the reality of it is if they don’t take care of the property, they will be in default and we can take the property back,” Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer said at the council meeting.

The vote to approve the new lease was 3-0. Council members Sandy Genis and Katrina Foley were absent.

The city had explored the possibility of a shorter-term lease, but club officials believed doing so could “adversely impact their ability to attract large donors,” city documents state. The club’s original lease, signed in 1965, provides the option of a 48-year extension.

The club serves 140 children a day in its after-school programs at the Eastside site, which sits near the border of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. An additional 500 participate in its basketball program, according to city figures.

The club also operates a Westside branch on Hamilton Street, as well as branches in Irvine and Newport Beach.

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