Third in a series
Re “‘He Turned The Ice Rink into a Cesspool,’ Says the Landlord”
After declaring that the Culver City Ice Arena “has been an albatross to me for 50 years,” landord Mike Karagozian was in a reflective mood while turmoil over the rink’s future churns about him.
“My parents (Sam and Julia) entered into a 49-year lease with the City of Culver City in 1961,” said their now 69-year-old son. “They had a fruit stand on Crenshaw Boulevard in those days.
“The land where the ice rink is was used to grow lettuce. My parents were not sophisticated people. They entered into this lease to where basically, you might as well throw away what you got off of it.
“Do you understand what I just said? It’s really simple. Let me put it this way.
“Because of Prop. 13, the taxes on that place are about $20,000 a year, more or less,” Mr. Karagozian said. “Normally, they probably would be a couple hundred thousand.
“For the whole 49 years, in any given year, the return per year on the property was less than the property tax.
“Understand what I just told you? That is an albatross.
“About 20, 25 years into the lease, the original guys who made the lease got ahold of me and they told me, ‘Would you be interested in taking this over now? And would you keep it going for the employees and stuff?’
“I told them, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’”
Mr. Karagozian recalled that his mother died the year after making the deal, in 1962, and his father died in 1973.
“I am getting to the point…Now listen here: Don’t print anything I didn’t say. Okay?”
“Okay,” said the reporter.
(To be continued)
