Leo Pustilnikov, AES plant owner: final proposal will be 18% more units
“Not selling a square inch”
by Garth Meyer
AES plant owner Leo Pustilnikov told the Easy Reader this week he has no interest in selling any of the 54 acres to the city for a park, and will increase his proposal to develop the site to 2,700 housing units, up from 2,320.
The state allows a project to increase or decrease by 20 percent – in units and/or square footage – from its preliminary filing to its final.
Pustilnikov’s increased tally, by 18 percent, will include 540 affordable units.
The AES site in Redondo Beach, however, remains slated for parkland, according to city zoning – though contested – public votes and otherwise.
“I don’t talk to them,” Pustilnikov said of the city council. “They don’t reach out to me. If they want a park, they should look at the waterfront. If the city can’t manage their own (property), why should they manage someone else’s?”
A previous deal fell through in 2020 for the city to buy 25 acres for $50 million to one day create a park.
Pustilnikov’s development proposal shows 22 acres of green space between the buildings.
When asked if there may be room for another deal – for example to build on 10 acres, and leave 40 for a park, Pustilnikov had a ready answer.
“It’s a 50-acre site. I’m not selling a square inch,” he said.
He references the city’s “lie.”
“That the day it closes, it becomes a park,” said Pustilnikov. “Based on what?”
As far as his proposal to develop the property, filed in July and August, he refers to the former Potrero power station on the San Francisco waterfront as a project with similar elements.
What part of his plans would he most like to see built?
“I want to see the boiler (building) converted,” Pustilnikov said, regarding the original building to be saved, and adapted for new use.
The deadline to submit a final building proposal is next February. ER