by Garth Meyer
Top leaders of Continental Development Corp. and Mar Ventures, Inc., sent a letter to the Redondo Beach city council June 25, offering a rejoinder to the May vote by the Beach Cities Health District that chose another proposal to redevelop its campus.
Continental Development/Mar Ventures was the original choice by the board for the work.
The plan would have kept the existing Silverado Memory Care on the campus, in a new building.
Instead, the proposal the board ultimately chose, by Sunrise Senior Living, means that Silverado residents need to vacate by next June.
Tom Bakaly, BCHD chief executive, and the board, explained at the time of the vote that Continental/Mar Ventures’ dollar numbers and timing changed after their initial offer.
Last week’s letter from Robert Tarnofsky and Lionel Uhry states that:
“After BCHD selected (us) for short-term exclusive negotiations with the goal of an agreed-upon letter of intent, and subsequent ground lease, we learned of previously undisclosed information including higher decommissioning and demolition costs, a more complicated approval process, and greater environmental risk mitigation, that materially changed the cost and risk profile…”
Tarnosky told Easy Rader that the letter arose because “there were statements that occurred in the press.”
“I’ll just let my letter speak for itself.”
“Yes, our proposal had nominal additional costs, and may have taken a little more time,” the letter continues, “but we feel strongly that it was a better solution to significantly upgrade the existing healthcare and memory care services provided in Redondo Beach,” Tarnofsky and Uhry wrote.
They added that, “BCHD made the decision to pass on our proposal based on the perceived ease of a simpler project.”
Tarnofsky is the president-real estate for Continental and Urhy is Mar Ventures’ CEO. Both operations are based in El Segundo.
“I have not seen the letter and upon hearing these excerpts, all of these items were known at the time of the Requests for Expressions of Interest last fall,” Bakaly said. “Their proposal significantly changed from that; the numbers, the timing, and that’s; why the board chose Sunrise. The Sunrise proposal has not changed.”
The next step for Sunrise (McLean, Virginia) is to obtain a conditional use permit, which is granted by the Redondo Beach planning commission. If denied, and the decision gets appealed, it then would go before the city council.
“I don’t know that the letter is significant, in the city’s regard,” said Paige Kaluderovic, city councilmember, who represents the district where the 11-acre BCHD hilltop campus is. “It’s under the purview of the BCHD board to make those decisions. It is an elected board for this entity, made of representatives of neighbors, whether that be in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach or here.”
Beach Cities Health District’s programs serve the three beach cities.
“I don’t know if it’s appropriate to comment on what the city council response has been,” Tarnofsky said.
“The city will take up its role once we receive an application,” said Kaluderovic. ER
Do everyone a favor and get the letter and post a link!
While I am truly sympathetic to families of Silverado residents, this article correctly states BCHD has an independent board and serves all Beach Cities. Those opposed to the new direction of the campus should work with BCHD’s board.
Redondo City Council can try (once again) to target BCHD’s FAR, but that will likely result in a lawsuit. Could Redondo prevail, and if not, what would that cost if BCHD proved they were singled out? What if we had an earthquake like the one in Venezuela? The building is outdated; it is a fair point if it came down during an earthquake that is a liability for BCHD. If Continental Development/Mar Ventures changed the timing and cost of the project, what are they willing to compromise to make it work with BCHD? Were they hoping BCHD could be pressured into accepting new terms, and is that fair to BCHD?
I am truly sorry for the families of those in Silverado, it is heartbreaking. I wonder if there weren’t so many obstacles to start this project almost a decade ago when interest rates/costs were so much lower, if Silverado would have been able to remain. I have always been an advocate for BCHD, so this is really hard because I know and respect people with loved ones at Silverado too. While this is an unfortunate situation, unless BCHD is doing something illegal, which it probably is not, Redondo City Council has no legal power to interfere.