[Editor’s Note: The second and final round of preliminary presentations by the four potential builders of Parcel B in Downtown starts at 6 o’clock tonight in Council Chambers, 9770 Culver Blvd.]
It was like old times last night in Council Chambers, the halcyon pre-recession days when angry community activists were the red-faced stars of the weekly City Council meetings, bitterly protesting that elected officials deliberately were drowning them out of redevelopment decisions around town.
After 3½ years of welcome peace, they returned last night with vinegar steaming from their ears and noses.
Over the din of burning words spilling from these well-rested activists fearful they again will be blocked out, the chin-stroking Redevelopment Agency played it casually.
Shorn of all apparent cares, the five of them — often hunched forward at tense times in the past — rocked back in their large comfy chairs on the dais. They realized the drama about to unfurl before them merely was a practice skirmish.
A Time to Unlax
Despite the warlike stance of numerous activists, these were only the preliminaries, Agency Chair Scott Malsin and others kept telling the skeptical protestors.
For 2½ hours, the Agency listened unflappably while members of the rival TolkinGroup and Runyon Partners pleaded to be the chosen developer of the plump acreage in front of The Culver Hotel.
Led by Francine Tolkin Cooper, CEO of Pasadena-based Tolkin, and Joey Miller of Runyon, whose office is one long baseball throw east of City Hall, each builder team squeezed everything into its 15 allotted minutes except the correct spellings of their favorite passwords.
Their quickly-paced pictorial and verbal power points were as rich in detail as they were distinct in design. Both rivals regularly underscored the notion that they are family operated. Tolkin emphasized how seamlessly their “Culver X” proposal would fit into the Downtown culture and architecture, appealing without turning into a sore thumb. Mr. Miller of Runyon turned Mexican/American history around nearly 200 years and dwelled on the community’s Spanish roots in carving a series of accessible buildings he called “Paseo” that was quite distinct from the Tolkin rendering.
Even though Mr. Malsin and his colleagues kept saying that, like the overflow audience, they were learning most of the details for the first time, activists went stubbornly unconvinced.
After the first presentation, Agency member Andy Weissman uncorked 11 leading questions that showed how early the evening’s rituals were in the selection process:
Said Mr. Weissman:
Given the history the Agency has had with this site, selecting a developer who can deliver on his/her promise is critically important. This is a project that will have to stand the test of time. As we have said on any number of occasions, we are not interested in a project merely to be able to point and say we built something on Parcel B.
In the regard, and as I am wont to do on occasion, I have a number of questions for all four of the developers who will be presenting to us tonight and tomorrow.
1. What experience do you have in building and leasing office properties?
2. What experience do you have in building and leasing retail properties?
3. How do you plan to finance this project? Do you have the equity available or will you need to partner with an equity provider?
4. Can you please provide us with information about your experience procuring construction loans?
5. How many retail leases have you or your organization negotiated and executed?
6. How many development projects have you done previously?
7. How many of your previous development projects do you still own?
8. Are you planning to own this project after it is built?
9. What does your project do in terms of sustainable development? What have you done to make your project “green?”
10. How does your project address the Agency's request to add additional parking at the site?
11. We know that tenants come and go over time. What consideration have you given to that reality and what have you done to ensure the long-term future of the project? How flexible will your project be if the tenants you propose today are gone in five, 10 or 20 years?
A Missed Opportunity?
After the opening Tolkin presentation, Mr. Malsin called for comments from the audience. Almost instantly, speakers went on offense.
Urgently they called c for additional meetings. They were appalled none had been planned, were slightly mollified when one was tentatively set, but worried about specifics of the design, and they went away fretting their opinions will not influence the final decision sometime next month. Presumably.
“Last night was a great opportunity for folks who were concerned about the process to come in and say what what they needed to say,” Mr. Malsin said this morning.
“It was a little disappointing to me that we got off track. Both of the proposals were very interesting. It was clear that both teams were interested in getting this opportunity.”
City Hall has responded to the public’s wishes to be more intimately involved in development.
“It is kind of unusual the way we are doing it this time,” Mr. Malsin said. “In the past, the City Council always has looked at proposals in closed session first to review the financial aspects.
“In this case, we are essentially having a town hall meeting. Everybody can see what the proposals are at the same time, an interesting experiment. I will be anxious to see whether it is a helpful way for the Council to make a decision.
“The designs can be changed easily. If we had a (building) team that was strong from a business standpoint, that could raise the money, lease the spaces and we had great confidence in them but found their design to be lacking, we could tell them what we wanted changed. That is pretty easy. The design side we could work out.
“The critical side,” said Mr. Malsin, “is that we find the right team to work with.”
Last Chance
Tonight at 6, Combined Properties Inc./Hudson Pacific Properties, and Cardiff Realty Hldings/N3 Real; Estate, the last two applicants, will pass in review before the Redevelopment Agency to close the introductory round.
