Re: “Will Carlyle Mass Sale Shake up or Kill ‘Billboard’ Drive?”

The answer cannot be known immediately.

Will the influential Carlyle Group’s just revealed decision to sell off its three Culver City properties have a salutary or negative or zero effect on the city’s decision to light up the southerly entry to the community with splashy but undetermined signage?

“I truly hope it will not have any effect,” Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Rose said this morning.

As for motivation, “the Carlyle Group is an investment firm. They take money to invest for a profit. They came into Culver City seven or eight years ago. They bought an asset (the DoubleTree by Hilton, a nearby parking lot, and the three-story ITT building). They have invested in it. Now it is time to sell it and make a profit.”

Here is a potential clue about why now.

“For those who have been watching the sales of hotels in L.A. County and Southern California over the last year,” said Mr. Rose, “I don’t think this is a great shock. Carlyle’s main function is investment and making money, as opposed to a retail business.”

In “hoping” that Carlyle’s exit does not disturb the rudimentary dynamics of the Culver City’s upgrade plan for Hotel Circle, Mr. Rose raised a not-new criticism.

“The city has not focused over the years as much as I believe they should have on the entire Fox Hills/Sepulveda/Slauson area,” Mr. Rose said.

He faults the city – that is, the City Council – for training its eyes mainly or exclusively on Downtown.  “They have focused there because of the investment they have made in Downtown.”

Mr. Rose, two-term former City Councilman, one of the few Republicans in public life, looked away for a moment.

“One of the mistakes I made when I was on the Council/Redevelopment Agency was that we created an area that has become very dependent on government action and government involvement.”

(To be continued)