By KEITH GRANT
A potential developer of the Superblock will be decided by the Long Beach City Council during a special meeting on Thursday night, Feb. 15. The developer and the city will then enter negotiations that officials hope will lead to the long-awaited realization of development on the vacant site.
City Manager Bruce Nyman said he will make a recommendation to the council on which developer to deal with, but would not tip his hand on his preferred choice on the eve of the special meeting. The city manager insisted, though, that no developer was yet chosen, and the council had not met in private to select one. The city, Nyman said, is going to great lengths to make sure the entire process is done right, and done in public.
"There has been no decision reached to this moment as to who it is, or who it will be," Nyman said.
The city has four developers to chose from: the Kurtz Organization; Long Beach Development, LLC; Phillips International and the Haberman Group. The Habermans, developers of the Sea Pointe Towers on Shore Road, own part of the Superblock property and are expected to file suit against the city should they not be chosen as the developers. The city has already retained the law firm of Berkman, Henoch, Peterson & Peddy to represent them in such a suit, as well as advise the council on all legal matters related to the condemnation and development of the Superblock site.
Much of those and other fees incurred to date will be offset by a $300,000 non-refundable check the selected developer will hand the city at the start of negotiations. Lawyers from the two sides will then work out an agreement on a timetable when the developer would get the necessary financing and approval of their plans.
The overall process, Nyman said, "is far from a done deal." The city manager equated this stage of the process to the second inning of a baseball game.
"Once we designate a developer, we'll negotiate with that developer to get the kind of deal we want," he said. "And also in the agreement there will be a ceiling on what they can do" on the property.
Each of the four proposals presented to the council at a pair of public hearings last fall featured variations of the same theme: a hotel, restaurants, catering facility and condominium units.
The Superblock site runs along the boardwalk from Riverside Boulevard to Long Beach Road, and from the boardwalk to Broadway. The land has been vacant for over 20 years, when it was the site of the Long Beach bowling alley and several apartment buildings.
City officials believed they were close to a development deal five years ago, but the builder could not come up with the proper financing. In hindsight, city officials realized many mistakes which, through the hiring of numerous consultants, they would appear to be taking pains to avoid this time.
"You learn from mistakes," Nyman said. "The city has done things very differently this time around. The biggest difference has been the due diligence of the council in choosing a developer."
The council will also vote to adopt the revised scope for the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement that must be carried out. On Jan. 16, the council held a public scoping session to allow residents to offer input into what potential impacts of development should be studied. The proposed scope was revised after the public input.
Canal bridges in for overhaul
City Council has approved an additional $540,000 bond to go toward the nearly $5 million replacement of the three canal bridges.
Originally estimated at $4.3 million, the project will cost an additional $536,960 because of the need to modify the bridge design and a rise in the cost of steel. However, the entire project is going to cost the city a total of only $217,000, or 5 percent of the work. The federal government is absorbing 80 percent, with the state picking up another 15 percent. Council members heaped praise upon Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg for securing the state funding.
Construction -- which will be done one bridge at a time -- will begin in spring. The new bridges will not require a center piling, allowing for a broader passage through each canal, but will not be higher, which many canal residents would like. Officials said that to make a bridge higher would necessitate raising the level of the street on either side of the bridge.
Each bridge will take three to four months to rebuild, which city officials said would lead to as little disruption as possible to E. Pine Street traffic.
