‘One Moment Is Inaccurate’
Last Monday night, the Agency took a crucial, highly technical public step toward hostile acquisition of four plots/buildings owned by Mr. Surfas. The Agency — and its mission to constantly upgrade the city — reposes at the core of this tale. Mr. Rose draws back the curtain on a new perspective. “To more fully understand the Les Surfas story,” Mr. Rose said, “you need to look back over a three-year period. We cannot take one moment in time, namely last Monday night, and make a sympathetic argument for Mr. Surfas, based merely on that. He may be deserving of some sympathy, but he is not automatically deserving of sympathy,” Mr. Rose said this morning. “To be fair, we need to look at the two-and-a-half to three-year process to see what has brought us to this point. It was about two and a half years ago that the Redevelopment Agency sent out an RFP, a Request for Proposal, to a number of developers and property owners in the Washington/National Boulevard area. Mr. Surfas responded to the RFP by choosing one of the two areas to develop, the east side or the west side of National, between Washington and Venice Boulevard. He chose to send in a proposal for property that he owns at National and Washington, the old Mike Miller Toyota site. He proposed a very extensive development (on the east side) for the project.
One for Each Developer
“After reviewing all proposals, the Agency decided to split the acceptance of RFPs and allow Mr. Surfas to do his proposal and to allow (the developer) Urban Partners to do their proposal (across the street, on the west side). Mr. Surfas then went on to remodel the existing building and opened up his retail business with a little café on that site, not building as extensively as he originally thought he would. At the same time, he knew that the development on the west side was still marching ahead on schedule, maybe a little behind schedule. The RFP process should have been at least the first hint to Mr. Surfas that the Agency wanted to purchase that entire triangle area. After the RFPs were accepted, notices went out to all the property owners. Mr. Surfas had to have known what was going on. I believe he was sent a letter saying that Urban Partners was the winning developer and his property (on the west side) was included.
Both Sides of the Boulevard
“For whatever his reasons were, Mr. Surfas just developed the existing building on the east side of National Boulevard. He opened it up. He is doing extremely well, with the support of his current buildings on the west side of National Boulevard. It seems to me he remodeled the east side of the street with the knowledge that the west side was going to be developed by Urban Partners. In my thought process, what is happening now is not as big of a shock to Mr. Surfas as he may make it out to be. Mr. Surfas says what the Agency is doing will cause him to move out of Culver City because it will cost him his warehouse. Yet his original plans had warehouses included in them. For whatever reason, Mr. Surfas chose not to build the development. Now he comes to us (at the Redevelopment Agency) and says because of the proposed purchase of his property that it is going to put him out of business. My question is, why didn’t Mr. Surfas build his original development on the east side that he proposed to the Agency? If he had gone ahead, he would have had his warehouse (the key loss for him in the redevelopment transaction). If he didn’t know what the city was going to do about redevelopment, did Mr. Surfas ever go into the city and apply for his permits or ask whether the Agency was going to purchase his property on the east side? I don’t believe so. I believe the Agency accepted his project on the east side.”
And in Conclusion…
At the base of his contentions, said Mr. Rose, is a belief that one of three options applies to Mr. Surfas. “(a) He could have built what he proposed to the Redevelopment Agency — a commercial development that included a warehouse facility, (b) he could do what he is doing now, saying he is somewhat shocked and surprised the Agency is seeking to purchase his land or (c) he might just have laid out this whole scenario in an attempt to increase the sale price of the property.”