Here is how the Culver City Unified School District can reopen the Natatorium in nine steps.
1. Decide as a School Board that it is time to do something about the Natatorium.
2. Work with the City Council. Use city resources and clean up the Natatorium. Make it possible to show the facility to a potential tenant. (Remove the hazardous waste from the building.) Do any City Council members think they can get this done? Now would be the time to step up to the plate.
3. Make a decision on how much you would want to charge for a long-term lease agreement. (If the building is refurbished and ready for business as an aquatics facility, CCUSD can charge accordingly. If the building is leased “as- is,” the payment will not be very much… All of the money for the lease payment will have to be used to pay back the loan for the remodel of the building).
4. Create an official Culver City Unified School District Request for Proposal.
5. Publish the RFP and find out if any aquatics groups, aquatics organizations, aquatics companies are interested in a long-term lease agreement for the Natatorium.(Part of the RFP could include information on whether you can provide your own funding to remodel the facility.)
6. Choose one entity and a backup entity to enter into a long-term lease agreement. (CCUSD has many long-term lease agreements in place right now).
7. Create a long-term lease agreement with the winner of the RFP. (With a long-term lease agreement, you can get a low-interest loan to remodel the building).
8. Remodel and refurbish the Natatorium.
9. Reopen the Natatorium…
Let the marketplace dictate if it is possible to reopen this facility.
If no suitable entity can be found, we can move on and do something else with the building.
For those of you who feel that the City of Culver City should run the Natatorium, submit your proposal with the rest of the interested parties.
(Signed) Your humble servant.
Mr. Smith may be contacted at robert@2popdigital.com
