Here’s a novel way to end the debate over what to do with the mostly built Belmont Learning Center: Tear it down and build a golf course.
That’s one of the ideas floated in response to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s requests for proposals to solve the Belmont fiasco.
“It’s a better idea to green that property than to build an industrial park or a building that blows up and blows up half the people inside it,” said Neil Antin, a local entrepreneur who’s working out plans to change the focus of the property from academics to sport.
According to a list obtained from LAUSD, Antin represents one of more than 50 inquiries about the RFP, which will not require actual bids until August.
Anne Valenzuela, the district’s executive administrator of business and finance, said those registered via the RFP Web site represent a broad range of interests: from developers to real estate brokers to community activists monitoring the situation. The response is encouraging to district officials looking for an end to their nightmare.
“We’re definitely pleased that there are a number of credible people with interest,” Valenzuela said.
Among those registering at the Web site were big players such as J.H. Snyder Co.; G.H. Palmer Associates; Goldrich, Kest, Hirsch & Stern; Maguire Partners and Cushman & Wakefield Inc.
Phone calls to many on the LAUSD registration list went unreturned last week. Two of the developers who had received the RFP information declined to comment about their interest in the property.
Jerry Snyder, president and CEO of J.H. Snyder Co., said he’s not going to be submitting any bids.”To buy that school that’s on top of that methane?” he said, incredulous at the idea. “No way.”
Snyder said his development company is interested in the situation just not in terms of taking on the project. He said he has offered his environmental team on a pro bono basis to evaluate the site. Snyder is familiar with methane and development issues as his company built the Wilshire Courtyard office complex in Miracle Mile atop methane deposits. His team installed a membrane between the gas and the foundation that disperses the gas and keeps it from seeping into the buildings.
One smaller player who wants to take a shot at the Belmont project is Simon Lee, a Los Angeles developer of retail properties. Lee, whose office is on Eighth Street just outside downtown, said he had proposed to finish the school.
“It’s challenging, but I think it’s a worthy project,” he said.
The now-infamous school, built on a toxin-laden former oilfield, has preoccupied school administrators and attorneys for more than two years. The school board voted in January 2000 to cease building the school and wants to sell the site, which sits atop a potentially volatile bed of methane and hydrogen sulfide.
Estimates have projected the district could recoup as much as $87 million by selling the property, which has already eaten up $170 million in LAUSD funds.
LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer has said he thinks the situation can be corrected and has succeeded in getting the district to comb the community for answers.
