On Second Thought
However, even while expressing grave doubts about the Woos ability to suddenly morph from inattentive landlords into admirable developers, the Agency overcame its apparent reluctance.
Agency members voted approval because they figured they were getting the long-decaying corner rebuilt on the cheap.
Congratulations Evaporate
Before the echoes had died down from Agency members congratulating themselves for engineering the slickest deal of the year, the Woo brothers vanished, and so did the confident smiles on the dais in Council Chambers.
This ephemeral moment of triumph came just as city officials were also congratulating themselves for ending their prickly relationship with the previously contracted developer. The Olson Co., never popular with residents, sought to build a project widely deemed too grand and too large for the neighborhood.
Discouragement
The almost-deal-that-never-was with the Woos, like an expensive vase, splintered into many discouraging pieces.
At City Hall. Joe Susca, the project manager for the Community Development Dept., spent 2 months painstakingly working out the details of what is called an exclusive negotiating agreement.
Declining to Sign
A week before the Redevelopment Agency would vote, Mr. Susca asked the middle-aged Woos to sign a contract. They balked, explaining their mother had been hospitalized.
Possibly with misgivings, Mr. Susca granted them 2 additional weeks to affix their signatures to paper.
They never did.
In the sad meantime, their mother died following complications from surgery.
Major Landowners
The Woo brothers soon turned their attention to their other holdings, which are vast and global.
They are players, politically astute and savvy, in the city of Los Angeles, strongly allied with Mayor Villaraigosa.
Their commercial intertwinings are impressively broad.
Mr. Susca said that after becoming more closely acquainted with the Woos, he has a better understanding of how they think and how they prioritize their professional lives.
Contrary to Image
Although the brothers have been scorned by residents of the working-class neighborhood for not maintaining the block-long parcel, they are not bad people, Mr. Susca said.
When you dont maintain your property, a certain reputation is formed but it is not deserved in this case. The fact is, property is not their focus. They dont focus on it because they dont really value it.
Mr. Susca believes that 2 toy companies the family owns in South-Central consume a large section of their energies.
He further reasons that the Woos may have pulled out because their egos were bruised from all of the criticism they heard, from the public and from Agency members.
Does Corner Matter?
It is not clear whether the northwest corner of Washington and Centinela is of much consequence to the Woos in the brothers overall real estate picture.
They appear to be on the way to losing the land, which they could have reclaimed by merely fulfilling terms of the rebuild agreement with City Hall.
Boos for Woos
If west Culver City people werent booing at the deteriorating corner when they drove by or walked by, they were thinking about it. City Halls ears turned scarlet and overheated from the withering community criticism.
In an applauded move, City Hall finally seized the Woo property, and its ownership is now in litigation. A court ruling is expected by August.
A Winless Record
For nearly 7 years, City Hall has been unable to close a deal on one of the least appealing major intersections in Culver City. It has a perfect record for imperfection so far.
Philosophically, the rebuffed members of the Redevelopment Agency can say, to themselves:
After 7 years of dead time, what does it matter to lose another 5 weeks?
The Right Move
Mr. Susca firmly insisted that it was not a mistake to award the Woos developing rights to the corner even though there was ample evidence for the skepticism, starting with the 13-year history of the Woos and the corner.
At this Mondays 7 p.m. meeting in Council Chambers, the Redevelopment Agency will take up the matter of Washington-Centinela, which has been more perplexing and insoluble than global warming.
Next Move Obvious
As for the chastened Agency, it should have its next move memorized by now, without consulting any how-to digests.
They will re-open the bidding to developers from Australia to Zimbabwe.
Mr. Susca said he is seeking a single developer for the northwest corner and the northeast corner, which also is an eyesore but a more palatable one because it is smaller.
