Small Craft Harbor Commission recommends lease assignment for Avalon Marina Bay

The Marina del Rey parcel could be transferred to a group of companies if Board of Supervisors agrees with the recommendation.

Editor’s Note: This recommendation was considered by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 15; complete coverage of the lease recommendation will be included in The Log‘s Nov. 1 issue.

MARINA DEL REY—The L.A. County Small Craft Harbor Commission has recommended a transfer of lease for Avalon Marina Bay in Marina del Rey; commissioners made the recommendation during their Sept. 18 meeting. The recommendation heads to the county’s Board of Supervisors, where the five-member panel would vote to approve or reject the commission’s action.

Avalon Marina Bay’s current leaseholder, Archstone Marina Bay Nominee, formally requested its lease agreement be transferred to a trio of companies: TC Marina Del Rey LLC, CG Marina Del Rey LLC and JSP Marina Del Rey LLC. All three would operate the lease agreement as tenants in common and under a leasehold purchase and sale agreement.

Avalon Bay Marina is home to 205 apartment units and a 207-slip marina. Archstone Marina Bay seeks to transfer its leasehold to TC Marina Del Ray LLC, CG Marina Del Rey LLC and JSP Marina Del Rey LLC for $86 million.

“The Lease requires that the Lessee must obtain the County’s consent to the proposed assignment of the lease, which consent may not be unreasonably withheld,” county staff told commissioners in a report. “The decision whether to approve the proposed assignment is guided by the criteria within the Department of Beaches and Harbors Department (Department) Policy Statement No. 23 – Assignments of Lease, dated January 16, 1974.”

The county’s criteria specifically call for the party or parties taking on the leasehold to be of sound financial condition. The proposed sale price must also represent the parcel’s fair market value. Transferring the parcel to a new party must also be in the best interest of Marina del Rey, as a whole.

TC Marina Del Ray LLC, CG Marina Del Rey LLC and JSP Marina Del Rey LLC have, according to county officials, “adequately demonstrated the ability to capitalize the existing leasehold as well as the funds necessary to maintain it.” The $86 million sale price also represents fair market value, county staff added.

Transferring Avalon Marina Bay to a new ownership and management group would also be in the best interest of the whole of Marina del Rey, county staff opined.

“In consultation with county counsel and outside counsel and the review of the Lease and proposed assignment agreement and related documents as they relate to the above criteria, Department [of Beach and Harbors] staff determined that the county has no reasonable basis to withhold consent to the proposed assignment,” county staff stated in its report to commissioners. “The department, therefore, recommends … consent to the assignment.”

L.A. County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors will receive about $1.7 million from the transaction, according to county staff.

“A majority of the funds will be … [used] to continue to maintain and improve the public areas of the marina and its infrastructure,” county staff stated in a report to commissioners. “The remaining amount will be retained by and allocated to the operating budget for the Department of Beaches and Harbors and will be accounted for as over-realized revenue in FY 2019-20.

“Costs of the consultants involved in the assignment of the leasehold are being reimbursed by the Lessee on an ongoing bases,” county staff’s report continued.

The leasehold on Avalon Marina Bay in Marina del Rey runs through June 7, 2051. Planned improvements on the parcel include two four-story apartment buildings containing 205 units and a 207-slip marina. The parcels frontage is on Tahiti Way.

2 thoughts on “Small Craft Harbor Commission recommends lease assignment for Avalon Marina Bay

  • October 16, 2019 at 5:05 pm
    Permalink

    what about the fuel dock?

    Reply
  • October 16, 2019 at 7:15 pm
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    Remember when a willing buyer and a willing seller could come to an agreement to transfer a property, without a bunch of bureaucrats puffing out their chests? good times…

    Reply

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