The timing of this announcement is interesting. Why re-attempt this deal, long opposed by residents and environmentalists, while the land-swap negotiations for the wetlands are on-going? Has this former Home Depot location now become part of the overall land swap negotiations? Will Mr. Dean threaten to kill the wetlands land swap deal if opposed again on his project at the former Home Depot location?

Isn't Mike Murchison the guy who likes Robert Garcia so much? I guess we'll see where Mr. Garcia falls in on this issue soon.

And, (shameless self-promotion here), as I commented on in this article:

http://thedistrictweekly.com/daily/writing-shot...

this is the other shoe that was waiting to drop. Developers cannot be trusted.

Andy: It's a sure bet Robert Garcia will be on the developers' side.

Regardless of your opinion on developing this site, the wetlands acquisition plan still seems promising.

I hope the enviros don't get so riled up about home depot part II that they kill the deal to acquire the wetlands. It would be yet another example of them shooting themselves in the foot.

I sometimes wonder if they really want to acquire and restore the wetlands. If they did, they wouldn't have a cause to fight for anymore. Not sure they could live with that.

We heard that these guys borrowed around 10 Million after Council approved the original plan, if so, we could see an act of desperation to maintain certain debt levels, but we shall see. Don't be surprised to see even more pressure this time around concerning the entire area. Many anticipated this and are rested and ready to deal some 'held' cards.

Merely submitting an Architectural rendering is no big deal folks so don't get too revved up yet. If you notice all the empty Commercial / Industrial East of Island Village at Boeing Park in Seal Beach, and all the new supply coming soon at Douglas Park on the Airport, this begins to look more than a little bizarre.

The community and the Courts clearly spoke to our Councilman on this issue too, and if he fails to listen this time, expect political viability questions and embarrassments ahead.

I'm not surprised. The court battle seemed too easy. I'm not sure what is meant by " . . . the Courts clear spoke to our Councilman . . ." All the courts said was that the EIR was flawed. In order for any development to occur, the EIR needs to be fixed in the areas identified by the court.

Hopefully it will be a smaller, low impact proposal this time around. The best option would be to just stick with the existing zoning - general industrial.

The court spoke to the validity of the EIR, not to the idea of developing the property.

Dear Resident, please read the entire Coastal Commission file and both the UPENA/ Los Cerritos Wetlands Lawsuit, the AES Lawsuit , the Findings and rulings from both venues and you will see that there many challenges ahead.

Most believe that Dean has lost several partners so far, and has a bunch of debt. It's funny that after losing his Amerigas deal attempt 11-18-08, that this back door plan immediately surfaces. Several wonder if this is an attempt to maintain certain debt levels too, but we shall see. From a macro view of the rest of this team's pending business, like the Wetlands exchange scheme, we applaud these guys shooting themselves in the foot again.
They ought to open a new LLC, Self Inflicted Wounds R US.

For certain, there will years of debate on this deal and it just may thankfully set the stage for a far better Councilperson . We are rested and ready to deal the next cards, patiently.

hahaha. I can only laugh at the latest news. Such sweet irony.

LB City Girl: Wetlands preservation has been in the works longer than the sports park proposal. SInce Tonia Reyes-Uranga voted in favor of the original Home Depot plan, I favor denying Tonia her sports park. Soccer players and skateboarders have alternatives for practicing their favored activities; the wetlands have no place else to go.

Yes, I'm a wetlander all the way.

DWR, I guess I don't understand why the two even have become connected. A person like myself believes we should restore the wetlands AND have the Sports Complex.

I also oppose the Home Depot project, though I'll admit, I'd love to have such a conveniently located place to purchase caulk. Lord knows the two Home Depots, the Lowes, and the other assorted hardware stores we already have simply aren't enough.

Hi LB City girl. Happy Holidays. In what context do you find this sweet irony ? We are not sure what you find so funny ? Could you please let us in on the joke ? Honestly clueless here?

The good Mr. Dean should consider:
l.Building something along the lines of Peter's Landing.
2Developing upscale dry boat storage.
3.Work with DBWA developing wet launch areas with access to open sea
via the San Gabriel River and slit in the exiting jetty.
4.A glorified hardware store is not in the cards.

As for the wetlands.Under no circumstances should the City even come to the
table as it were unless and until Federal and State approvals have been obtained,
in writing(court certified)that the land is free and clean of any toxic materials.Of course
any and all gas,oil and mineral rights should flow with the land.

The barn is not on fire as far as the wetlands are concerned.Its owners can not to much
with it until it is cleaned up.Thus the City should not let De Long stampede it into a deal
saddling us with a multi million clean up bill.

I think the barn is on fire depending on your perspective. There should be a sense of urgency on the part of the city and the citizens of Long Beach to accomplish the follwoing within 1 year:

1. Acquire the wetlands and beautify the perimeter of the entire property ASAP.
2. Begin the process of securing funding to restore the wetlands.
3. Approve whatever development the majority of the community wants (not simply the vocal enviromentalists) for the surrounding properties so that the area can be beautified.

Those of us who live here see the potential to raise property values and improve quality of life for everyone with smart development that is asethically pleasing and sensitive to the environment.

As I understand the deal from reading the media, the City won't have a "multi-million clean up bill", the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority will oversee the restoration.

The State cannot afford even a little bit of the remediation Senore Shore. Their past opinion remains, we have heard, is basically how much will you pay us to take the liability based upon agreeing to take the surface rights for free ?. This area is on the Federal Superfund list you know. The Coastal Conservancy is not a superfund toxic bailout group, based upon their past projects?

Asking 25 Million for only some of the surface rights caused a few of the key funding sources to laugh, we are hearing. They sure are not signing a MOU, or calling a happy press conference.

Recall that Signal Hill Petroleum had to be included in the Bryant acquisition because they agreed to take the soil liabiliy. We helped because we have long known that their dirt is not very bad. It never held City Dumps 1 through 6, burn dumps, crude oil settling ponds, leaking tanks, refinery works or lots of transfer piping . Bixby A and B did.

Dean bought the very worst part. A similar restoration cost 1.3 Billion not too long ago !! This would probably be a high comp for this area, but some of the nastiest stuff from the 40's to the late 70s got dumped out there, wide open. Deadly Benzene, a distilled product, which is not the product of oil extraction, is detected in a huge plume at 30 times the non potable standard below Deans land and in our groundwater. Lot's of nasty heavy metals too. A fear is that this migrates into our waters and Wetlands.

Ask your Lawyers how hard it is to try to 'Disclaim away'' this liability.

Urgency should not be allowed to trample common sense and good business judgment.Common
sense and good business judgment say the taxpayers should not touch ANY land until the site is
void of toxins.Nothing would drive property values down faster than if we had a Times Beach
situation here in Long Beach.Forget not also: a major stumbling block which stands in the way of
developing that parcel of land in the 7th district slated for a much needed park-is the cost of
rendering it toxin free.So too would it be for the property which some seem to be in such a rush to
buy.It is worse than a pig in a poke.We already know what is in the poke-and its far worse than a pig!
As Less Robins opined in his recent column.It does not pass the smell test.

!

Some of us think these guys have never actually developed anything and have a very slow learning curve . Many now realize they lack real world development resume's and thus persist with a very flawed idea. This comedy of errors and acrimony may have many years left to play out. Dean needs consultants who know what they are doing for many of his schemes, not realtors who think they know everything and can take shortcuts. Costly, boneheaded shortcuts. Regardless, he has burned his reputation around here, is not trusted and very unpopular.

Clearly these Brokers have a lot to learn beyond leveraging parcels and leasing. They may pay to continue trying to get a handle on many things but they are wasting all of our time. Also, many of the proposals they recently proposed or resubmitted will probably never fly.

If they are developers, show us the tracts, offices, centers, tilt ups , Industrial parks, multi story offices, condo's or apartments that they have done all the work upon in order to bring an actual project to market, occupancy , sale or successful operation ? They are not bankable real world developers are they ? If they were, they would have walked away like realistic professionals some time ago.

Home Depot supposedly carried some of the prior freight and it may be even more difficult to try this white elephant on spec. Just check out all of the supply in Seal Beach, Downtown and coming soon at Douglas Park.. By the way, would you ever eat , drink or shop immediately next to a smokestake ?

We agree Resident, the barn was on fire, then the embers glowed brightly as we went out to cut and dry more wood. We have plenty of logs to donate and in many cases, relish the next cook out. Many suppose that a few huge ego's may have tens and tens of Millions of hard to roll over debt unrealistically pinned to descending, non productive collateral, and that's the smoke that several are smellng.

Politically, this is a classic example of Gary being asleep at the switch and trying to help a few buddies under the guise of 'Promoting business'', ya, for Attorneys, This latest Home Depot deal smells like a re-financing ruse, or a ploy to bargain for the Sport's Park and more.

Blame DeLong and the City for ignoring our weed removal requests for decades. Ask them to finally rescind the ' Bixby's get away with anything rule'' which allowed them to never clean up this land which they, the City at times, and others were horrible stewards of. The preservation community has removed non native vegetation for years as volunteers all over town. Also, the 2004-6 Award winning SEADIP 2 rezoning panel recommended it too.. It's as easy as enforce the existing law some year?. Gary has been asked many times, but he has always had this listenng problem. He and Dean and best buddies so he is probably saving him money while again trying to gain development momentum with a less than ideal perimeter aesthetic.

We have discussed spondoring the beautification 'around'' him and may just do so soon. There is an argument that some of this cover does help protect certain species though.

It's going to be fun watching the political fallout. These recent deals may jus cost Gary his job some say.

Finally, it will be many many years before many issues are legally 'ripe' we hear. Your one year timetable is legally impossible we surmise, other than the weed abatement.

murchison told me dean would do this very thing to force the city to give him the sports park. he said dean needs the money bad but i don't believe it since he still globetrots in his lear jet. not sure the end goal but didn't seem to care, surprised by the timing nonetheless.

obvious ploy for leverage since sports park bailout of wetlands mistake going south. still dean jetsets in his lear oblivious to how he is perceived by his own neighbors.

Paying for any clean up:

Someone raised the specter that the Conservancy and not taxpayers(City) might be paying for
the referenced cleanup of the wetlands the developer might put into play.

That should not be allowed to happen,regardless of who the developer is.Conservancy funds
are for the most part-taxpayer funds,held and managed in trust.They are not be used to bailout
developers or investors that made a bad decisions.Doing so would be perverse and directly
repugnant to the intent of Conservancy funding.

Dear Tara and friends,

See what else Mike has to say when you get a chance and keep us posted? Mike has told several key individuals many lies and half truths during this debate 5 year debate. He recently claimed to a prominent civic leader that the '' residents had won on home depot'' and that his client was ''giving the community the Wetlands''. Ya right, for a ridiculously inflated price. This was an admission of financial distress to the saavy.

Then they hit a wall on Amerigas/Sports Park scheme and we learn that Dave Mackenbach rushes into City Hall with a woefully incomplete proposal , with Home Depot's labels whited out, and HE signed the Application. This act said a lot to insiders. He is but a realtor and not a developer, or Engineer, Architect, Attorney or Development Co.? If they were serious, they would have a bonafide team with resumes that are bankable, this is normal? For example, and Industrial based new set of plans? A dramatically reduced site plan ? Ahh, there's no money in that and vacant supply all over. Let's leave it at this, his Application is woefully incomplete and it just may stay that way ,for a very very long time. Stay tuned.

As for Dean's neighbors, he has cost one friend of a team member around 800,000 they say, and he really hurt several others in and around Naple's and elsewhere others say. Ask around .we heard that one of his retired invesors had to go back to work? Ask Mr Berger why he is heading for the Hills supposedly? At Virginia Country Club, you hear about all of these people smiling, shaking his hand, feigning friendship, then chuckling about how long he can carry all his purported mountain of debt. Then they send us money for the preservation fight? And joke about Napolean finally meeting his Waterloo?? Are we wrong here?

Here are some other clues, DeLong, Murchinson and Mackenbach are suddenly tripping over one and other to try to generate cash in a hurry. The anxst is palpable. You can smell it. As LBResident said, ''the barn appears to be on fire''. Next, these odious and desperate values get quietly attached to this Wetlands/Sportspark exchange scheme. Next, Gary gets busted tryin to whisper it along. Again ! LOL If you back the numbers out, he must be in a world of hurt. He is trying to walk with 10's of Millions off the top !! To borrow or refinance against? Good luck boys. Pat West is a fine man with a difficult job, let's approach him fairly. These guys don't pay his bills. He has respect for the community , our Estuary and has proven himself to be a worthy Fiduciary. Write him and post it up here.

Four more hints. At the airshow a few weeks ago, Dean apparently towed his P51 out for display, and didn't fly it or even fire it up, which was odd ?. Seemed expense related to some. Then, about two weekends ago, his wife told sources that she took her 10 best friends to New York for a Broadway show and shopping. A lot was said which helps our strategy, so neighbors, please keep your eyes and ears open too. Also, we then noticed that his jet is stuck on the tarmac in New Jersey and is still there ? Puzzling ? It is quite old we hear.

But Tara, using the jet to run that business as a loser or write off is not that unusual though. Pitching deals or trying to find rollover financing counts. He probably claims it as a business expense.. Remeber, the IRS has a tip line for suspicious activities and a lot of people smell a rat here.

Then, Dean leases City Eaasement land along the LB freeway quietly the week before the SportPark fiasco, to store cranes and equpitment, which nobody is renting. Finally, crane related shoring shows up hideously stored at the rear of the Pumpkin Patch? Could we be selling storeage land, liquidating certain assets to raise cash, and/or suffering a huge crane rental slowdown? PS, That stuff on the Pumpkin Patch needs a permit and is a code violation. Join us in complaining? The Eastside is not intended for Industrial Storeage is it? That area is also remnant Wetlands filled without a permit.

Friends at the Yacht Club, Virginia and elsewhere seem to conjecture the same thing over the past years. When you think that you are better than everybody, but aren't, and claim that you are a supposed genious, due largely to self centered greed, not omniciscience, you betray yourself to others. And merely because you come from very humble beginnings, you need not evolve a narcissis complex at the peril of the respect of your community, or the perdition of your soul. Whatever wrong heartedness that has blinded you to humble yourself to Charity, and giving, or simply being a good neighbor, need not drive you to try to endlessly flaunt your possessions in everybody's face? To many, this is a risk far more costly than borrowed capital and high leverage.. The Big Eye in the Sky , Karma, the Law of Averages, the Almighty, whatever, probability if you prefer, has a way of bringing us all to our knees. Guys you can't win them all and often the key to wealth generation, is capital preservation, or, knowing when to cut your losses.

We also hear that in the glory days of leverage, Dean's gang had a bank in the Valley, that would loan them 'anything'. Not a lot of those banks left anymore ?. Many of us also had such lattidude but refrained, and were selling land in 2005, and equities in 2007 . And now we are watching to see how high and tight this possibly long overdue haircut will be?

Don't worry, hair eventually grows back. Well, Murchinson will still need to bendover an stick his mellon head in a bowling ball dryer.

Let's bargain really hard, as a broad team, for the Wetlands at a distress sale price, in full view of comprehensive soil remedition liabilty by those who fouled the soil and water, and insodoing, urge Mr Dean to make a meaningful donation to a magnificent , soul empowering charity. Our Coast Resources.

great idea. Let's bargain really hard and have what always happens. Nothing gets done and we're still stuck with the swampy eyesore. Heaven forbid we work toward a compromise that results in improvement.

How can anyone ascertain a retail tenant's commitment? After all, many organizations are slated to close stores because of the economic downturn. Whatever the case, developing anything that will cause damage to a wetlands location, is surely going to be vigorously fought by environmentalists and preservationists. Dean & Co., would be better off selling the land to the state. Make the land a real wetlands location. That attract more visitors than a home improvement store. Any Long Beach official, supporting Dean's concept, is hell-bent on making a bad situation worse.

Dear Resident,

We suppose that you believe something will actually get built during a protracted National, State and local Recession, verging on a synchronized Global slide ?? One when anyone might have noticed 3 of 5 Wall Street Investment Banks are toast, and the other 2 had to become Banks to obtain Federal backstop funding? How about confirming Lease tenants for these supposed projects ? Oh ya, we're suddenly building on spec again?? Check out the skyrocketing Vacancy Rate in the general area and all of the listings? Please Res?

So you actually buy all of this?? How about we buy it, with YOUR money? and your friends? Show us your letter of credit along with your letter of intent? Syndicate your friends for us Resident? Put your money where your mouth always is ? Let us know how that one goes pal. We have to rib you a little because so much of this smells pretty funny, until we see a real deal proposal and the dough to pull it all off?

How about this, let's see the capital improvement funding for any of these schemes in a segregated construction fund dedicated project by project? It all appears to be on the 'come' sir, or as Graham and Dodd defined in their Value Investing master work, a 'Speculation'. So besides sounding like you have skin in the game, or subjective self interest to improve your appraised value, or view, you persist in kind of drinking the wrong KoolAid. Sorry. If this isn't a wishful 'Bailout', show us the money? And the books, and all the numbers? If this is all for real, our fine City nows exactly how to screen the Bonafides related to all of this. We'll help.

A lot of towns dismiss Developers unless they have the actual money in hand, letters of credit, secured financing, tenants and bankable, well timed projects? Then they wisely select a real developer with a track record of success, and a broad and well rounded team of actual Professionals with solid resume's, and a good reputation? Lennar couldn't take it? Their stock has gone from the 60s when they proposed the Seaport Marina, it is around 7 bucks last we saw?

Excellent builder, Tab Rich , couldn't pull off The Marina Shores project over the Pumpkin Patch , during the sweet spot of the last Real Estate boom, even though it was fully funded from inside? Sitting on City Dump #1 was a major issue, plus remnant and existing Wetlands photographs and claims, but why does the proximity to our Councilman allow some of this stuff to illogically persist against the overwhelming will of the Majority? Ask him?

Recall that Disney wasn't good enough for us, they are a Blue Chip, Fortune 500 Corporation?, nor were Price / Costco, Home Depot and the Signal Hill Car dealers which moved to Signal Hill for a better deal? What makes this team so all fired special? Their supposed risk tolerance and debt levels? Desperation to generate revenue? Tell us ?

If you really want to improve the perimiter aesthetic, it is simple. File a complaint and request a WEED ABATEMENT ORDER. Get some signatures to help. Include in this Demand a crucial paragraph, specify that all Native vegetation, or Wetlands obligate species, be left in place at risk of violating the Coastal Law's protections. Submit the letter to the Code Enforcement Officer at the Coastal Commission too. Give us Notice, because there are many who can easily point out what should stay, and what could go.

Next, demand a Code Enforcement Action, and compel Mr DeLong to finally enforce the existing Municipal Code, AND, the protections of The Coastal Act. If you are so concerned, join a willing team of volunteers that would help remove the non native weed species, as they have at Simms Pond, around El Dorado, and up and down the Coast? See you out there? Next, raise funds for Native Plants, and we'll all have a Restoration Planting Party. We'll name a Coyote 'Grumpy Resident' after you.

The only '' ugly swamp'' most may see, is in the depth of your caveman like inability to grasp the real, pristine beauty back there. Or another swamp which mires your desire to quickly dismiss the salient legal or societal issues, or realities. relevant to resolving this matter. We have hope ...and faith.

Nobody is going to easily develop an inch of this area, it is not going anywhere, many protect it with all of their might, we have the residents (sans you dude) behind us, time, money, a broad based and excellent team, political will despite Gary, and...we have the momentum of the Hellman and Bryant Acquisition ? Actually, much more

Most agree, it's going to happen, comprehensively, openly, fairly and cost effectively. And the West side, Downtown, Mid Town, and North Town, and anyone else, including our Municipality, need not get left holding the entire bag again ?