Second of two parts
Re “Planet Granite Owner Speaks Out on Delay”
[img]2451|right|Micky Lloyd||no_popup[/img]Perhaps the most critical question the newspaper put to the CEO of Planet Granite this week was:
With the Culver City Ice Arena dark for at least the foreseeable future, could a year’s worth – or more – of delays over legal wrangling be a dealbreaker for the putative next lessee of the property?
His answer may provide ice skating partisans with a rich vein of speculation to plumb.
“I don’t feel real well qualified to answer that question,” said primary owner Micky Lloyd. “I still am trying to understand what the implications of this are.”
How many persons will be participating in this potential make-or-break verdict.
“We have a very collaborative way of making decisions,” Mr. Lloyd said.
“We will decide, but we need a great deal more information.”
The latest unsettled dimension of the use variance document that was found a week and a half ago is a presumption – so far – that is the Ice Arena is dark for one year, the landlord and lessee, Planet Granite, may not have to submit to the prickly populist gauntlet of gaining approval from the Planning Commission, City Council, and environmental inspection review, and the emotional wishes of thousands of hometown skating fans who hope to deny Planet Granite.
One More Headache
“You have just made me aware of this new information that I certainly did not know,” Mr. Lloyd said. “This is demonstrative of how this situation is evolving.
“We all need to let it evolve and figure out what this means.
“We all had a certain set of assumptions.”
For example, said Mr. Lloyd, “we had a letter from the city saying that our use was acceptable. We relied on that letter.”
Planet Granite became only the second tenant in the modern history of the intensely valued property when it signed a lease with Fresno-based landlord Mike Karagozian on Dec. 23, and seven weeks later, the Ice Rink was to be shut down, preparatory to a massive conversion to a rock climbing-yoga-fitness center.
It is not known how long the turnaround was expected to take.
Seeking to convey a conciliatory mode, Mr. Lloyd said that “we all are trying to understand it, including the city as new facts come to light.
“What effect this will have on Planet Granite is not a question I feel well equipped to answer at this point.”
On Day Four of the Culver City Ice Arena’s closure, question marks are ubiquitous and answers are scarce.
