Recommendation to declare the City-owned property located at 240 Long Beach Boulevard, 320 East 3rd Street - 356 East 3rd Street, and 269 Elm Avenue (Assessor Parcel Numbers 7281-017-904, -905, -906, -911, -912, -913, -914 and -915, collectively, the Subject Properties) as surplus, authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute any and all documents necessary, including a Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) with Ratkovich Properties, LLC, a California limited liability company (Buyer), for the sale of the Subject Properties in the amount of $2,340,000, and accept Categorical Exemption CE 15-149.  (District 2)
Item 14 Report from Economic and Property Development Recommendation to Declare City Owned Property located at 240 Long Beach Boulevard. 322 356 East Third Street and 269 Avenue as surplus and execute all documents necessary for the sale of the subject properties in the amount of 2.3 million. District two Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So Councilwoman Gonzales and I were trying to figure out how long it's been. And I know this council's accustomed to hearing me say that I've worked on something for five years or six years. I think this one takes the cake. So this moment has been 15 years in the making, more than 15 years in the making. Long before I joined the council, I was a resident in downtown at around 2000, and I recall initial conversations between artists and residents who envisioned an innovative visual arts center in downtown Long Beach. There are a lot of members of the downtown community that have at one time or another participated in the art exchange effort, whether it was for the entire 15 years, some of us, certainly for the entire 15 years and others have come in at critical times and helped move us forward. They wanted space, these individuals, these artists for creative programing, artists, studios, galleries and special events 15 years and several, several iterations later. And you finally found a place to call home in the East Village Arts District. And I want to thank all of those individuals who've hung in there with us in the city and really with each other to make this happen. I'm especially thankful for Steve Elicker, who is one of the pioneers and been part of this for more than 15 years. But definitely the entire time we've worked together as a city. I know how important owning your building is for fundraising for all of the other aspects that provide legitimacy to the work that you do. And that point has never been lost on me. As for the acres of the books building, acres of books building, I'm very pleased to have a premier local development team in J.R. vendors working on its restoration and adaptive use. I know they're here today. Most of you are familiar with John's incredible work around town with the Ebell Club on Third Street, the art theater on Fourth Street, and most recently, the American Hotel or the Psychic Hotel, as some of us know it on Broadway, the new home of Inter Trent. So I have high hopes for adaptive reuse of acres of books. I understand that some community members are still disappointed with the city for taking a beloved independent bookstore away. And I understand that. And I think those are decisions that were made at a time and those that certainly we're not here to challenge today. But I do acknowledge that there is some disappointment. But with that always comes something sweet as well. It certainly. It didn't help that we had to go through a historic recession to reach this point. I think we are all aware of the impact that that has had on many projects and certainly had an impact here. But I will say this, Phil and Jacqui Smith, who were owners of the property, were able to walk away and start their own life, their own new life, and have a new lease on life, a retirement package that might never have come had they stayed. And certainly those were the times that we had the redevelopment agencies to assist. And so we move on and we make the best of our current circumstances. And I think the art exchange team certainly has helped us make the best of what we have available and are going to show us and and this city what they're able to do with this beautiful location. The residents in Long Beach will soon have a vibrant city block filled with the arts, culture, commercial and residential uses. And I'm really optimistic, very optimistic about the future connection of our downtown core with the East Village, especially when I look at what's happening to yellow yellow 108, the blender and rainbow juices, the redesign of City Place and soon to be finished Edison Lofts with Reykjavik Properties. And I know Mr. Activity is here today as well. Something to be said about connecting the East Village and the downtown core. When the old mall before City Place was here, I think it was called the Long Beach Mall. Yes, yes. Long Beach Mall. It divided the downtown. It separated the East Village from the downtown. And something that we all who live there, work there, love the heart of the downtown wanted to see more than anything was to open that up. And so the fact that City Place did that in some way by opening up Fourth Street and Fifth Street, it helped. But I think this project will help even more to reconnect, to stitch the East Village to its proper downtown location. And we also have Cliff I mentioned earlier, Cliff and John are here and they're behind this project as well. So we couldn't ask for a better group of folks working on this block. I'm very pleased, Mr. Mayor, to move this item for approval. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Everything that the vice mayor said, plus more. I'm very thrilled to have this tonight on the agenda. I know she has worked tirelessly for many years to be able to bring the communities together. And I see John and I see Richard there. And it's been a wonderful now we're here and it's been a wonderful manifestation of what is possible in downtown an East Village. And I see Nico here as well from the art exchange. And this is going to be very exciting. I know as many of us are going through looking at the different changes in downtown, this is one more thing that we can feel very, very accomplished for. So I commend Vice Mayor Lowenthal for all of her work in this. Thank you, Councilman Andrus. Yes, thank you, Mayor. You know, I am really happy to see that we will continue to, you know, the progress that we are doing in the downtown area. But before I really vote in this area, I want to make sure that we are hiring Long Beach residents for any demo or construction as promised by the developers. You know, I like to, you know, have a status report on how many jobs we are creating and how many that were filled by the Long Beach residents. If that would be okay. We could certainly come back with a report on that. I can accept that. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I would be remiss if I did not think our city team and actually, I think Amy's been there from the beginning as well. I don't know if she's here tonight, but Amy and Angela Reynolds, they're all here and know this project from the beginning. And I want to thank our city team for hanging in there as well with the artist and the proponents for the project. And something that I wanted to mention, oftentimes developments talked about as being conducted by entities from outside the city. Folks that don't know our city really, not our residents. But if you look at this team, the team that art exchange is made up of, as well as the development team, they are local people. They live here. Almost all of them are local. And that's something that I think we don't talk about very much because maybe it's more commonplace here than in other cities. But I want to celebrate that and I want to be sure that we do celebrate that, that this is a local project by local community members so that they can continue to live and work in the city they love. Thank you. Thank you. Before we go to any public comment, I just want to add first, congratulations, obviously, to the team that's putting this forward. I just want to say that we've been talking about the site for such a long time. It's such an important connection for for downtown. I'm really I'm heartened by the fact that there's that there's artists involved. And it's going to be really centered around this idea of creating art. And I think that the fact that the team is working with or with the art exchange, the team is working to develop that kind of a feel on the site and also adaptively reuse the acres of book site, which I think is really important. I think it's something that's really, I think, a proud moment for the city. It's been tough getting here. But I want to congratulate the vice mayor for seeing this project through. And here we are and of course, everyone that's been involved in the project. So with that, if there's any public comment on the project, please come forward. And I have to say, Mr. Mayor, we all have less hair. All of us. All right. I do. Thanks. Nice man. Oh, sorry, Mr. Goodhue. Very good. Clark, as the address, the use of the property, in my view, is certainly not at issue. In my mind, what's at issue is the way the sale is going about. And I had this same trip, the same problems with the disposal of earlier properties that were rattled off rather quickly. I would rather see. And I think it makes sense. To have the properties put up for sale. To the highest bidder that shows up at the courthouse step with a cashier's check period. I think that's the way to go. I think that's always the way to go. And I'm sure that you would not be comfortable passing this unless you had the and I don't know, maybe she's done it. The approval of or reflections from the city auditor as to whether or not this is financially sound. Disposing of the property in the way we're disposing of it and so forth. Is there? Am I wrong? But I don't see. Any report from the city auditor indicating whether or not this is financially sound or not. Is that something that the clerk failed to attach to that, or is it just simply because that was not done ? What's the public record show? So the public record shows the council is moving, prepared to move forward without a recommendation one way or the other from the city auditor. That speaks volumes. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other public comment on the item? Seeing none. There's a motion any second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 14. 15. Was it 15? Yes.