The fledgling vision for a small faith-based academy, Ambassador High School, will not come to fruition at 320 Knob Hill. Officials from the Redondo Beach Unified School District and Ambassador School announced last week that negotiations for a lease on the former school site have ended unsuccessfully.
Ambassador CEO and headmaster Mike Barker said that financial terms could simply not be met.
“Despite sincere efforts on the part of both parties, we were unable to come to terms for a ground lease which matched both the District’s immediate financial needs and Ambassador’s financial means,” Barker said in a statement.
Ambassador’s bid for the school’s surplus site – which currently houses the Knob Hill Community Center and Carden Dominion School – had apparently prevailed after a dramatic RBUSD Board of Education meeting on Oct. 5 in which Barker upped the school’s initial $500,000 annual lease offer to $528,000. Local development firm Mar Ventures, which had proposed an affordable housing project, had bid $502,027.
But Ambassador faced an uphill battle. The school had only $13,000 in its coffers. The hope was that its winning bid would attract more financial support, but little materialized – Ambassador currently has only about $30,000 at its disposal. The school hoped to raise a total of $11 million for upgrades, programs, and lease payments, and needed at least $500,000 to open its doors by next September.
Negotiations ended when terms of the first few years rent could not be agreed upon. District officials ultimately determined that Ambassador’s offer did not fulfill the request for proposals (RFP) issued earlier this year.
The district’s RFP sought $25,000 per quarter during the so-called “entitlement” period – no more than two years, as all zoning and permitting issues are processed – $300,000 per year through a maximum 18 months construction period, and a minimum of $500,000 annually thereafter. Ambassador’s final offer was $100,000 for partial use of the campus during the first year, $300,000 annually for the next three years, and $528,000 by the fifth year of a 30-year lease.
Board member Jane Diehl, who made the motion to accept Ambassador’s bid, expressed disappointment. She noted that the city has plans in place to leave the facility, which will leave the district with no tenant and no lease revenue in already difficult economic times.
“I’m disappointed because we still don’t have anybody there,” Diehl said. “I’m disappointed because it’s a plan that the neighborhood liked, and if we could have made it happen, that would have been golden.”
Superintendent Steven Keller credited the board with giving the school an opportunity. But now, he said, the board will need to quickly move on.
“We did our due diligence,” Keller said. “Now the board is going to have to consider what is next.”
According to district sources, the board now has the option of entering negotiations with the next highest responsible bidder – Mar Ventures – or beginning the bidding process all over again.
Mar Ventures president Allen Mackenzie was unavailable for comment.
Two board members, Carl Clark and board president Drew Gamet, were supportive of Mar Ventures bid at the Oct. 5 meeting, at which both expressed skepticism regarding Ambassador’s financial wherewithal. Diehl said she is willing to reconsider Mar Ventures’ proposal.
“I am open to Mar Ventures at this point in time,” Diehl said. “I’ll be skewered, but I am not running for any political office in the future. We tried [Ambassador] and it didn’t happen. So to be truthful, if Allen had upped his bid, I would have voted for Allen.”
The Mar Ventures proposal – which calls for roughly 100 residential units on the 3.25 acre site – would face some neighborhood opposition. A group of residents called the Knob Hill Community Group staunchly opposed the bid in October. Kelly Martin, who organized the group and maintains an email database of more than 1,000 names, suggested the district should start the bidding process anew rather than negotiate with Mar Ventures.
“That would be infuriating, to say the least,” Martin said. “I think they should go through their due diligence…Mar Ventures would certainly galvanize the neighborhood against it.”
The city, which currently houses its recreation and community services department at Knob Hill, has plans in place to move to its own property at Aviation Park. The city currently pays RBUSD $302,000 annually.
City Manager Bill Workman said the city intends to relocate next year.
“We are still planning on leaving Knob Hill by June 30, 2011, unless something changes,” Workman said. “Our first choice is still Aviation. We’ve got plans in place and council approval to do that…We’ve got plans in place to leave.”
Keller said that given the district’s budgetary circumstances and the state’s gloomy midyear outlook, finding a new leaseholder quickly is vital. RBUSD has suffered three years of state cuts totaling $8 million of its $55 million budget.
“The Knob Hill facility is a dilapidated property that is an eyesore to the community,” Keller said. “The city maintains a month-to-month lease. We will quickly find ourselves with a property that in its current state is unappealing to potential lessees. The bottom line is we will soon lose hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Time is of the essence.”
“All indications from the state Legislature are that public schools will receive another midyear hit, again,” Keller added. “I’m not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Barker said that Ambassador, meanwhile, has not given up hope of finding a home and opening a school by next September. He said one positive aspect of its negotiations with the district is that the school has a much bigger public profile and may find more opportunities as a result.
“We are looking for alternative sites,” Barker said. “We started Friday…the word is out there.”
Martin said the neighborhood is sad to see Ambassador leave.
“It’s so disappointing,” she said. “I was really a big fan and quite hopeful that Ambassador was going to be a success. The whole neighborhood was excited to see Ambassador move in. We already considered them neighbors.” ER
