Fisher Lumber likely to be converted into a park
CITY HALL — Elected leaders here voted unanimously Tuesday night to buy three acres of land in the heart of Santa Monica for $18.5 million.
The Fisher Lumber site at 1601 14th Street sits adjacent to Memorial Park and likely will be used to expand the popular park, though officials must wait to make a formal decision on how to use the property until after hearing from the public.
Owned by K.C. Riverstone Ltd. but long operated by Fisher Lumber, the site has been eyed for years by City Hall, which missed a chance to buy it in 2002. Officials said they couldn’t let that opportunity pass again.
“This is really a wonderful day for the people of Santa Monica,” City Councilman Ken Genser said. “It’s not often … that we can buy large pieces of land and that’s because they don’t make them anymore, and there aren’t a lot of them around — and there aren’t going to be any more, probably. So I think that when we have the opportunity we should really stretch to make the purchase. And this is going to be a stretch.”
According to terms approved by the City Council, City Hall must hand over a $250,000 deposit to enter escrow, which will close Nov. 29. The $18.5 million price tag, which works out to $146 per square foot, is consistent with fair market value, said Miriam Mack, who oversees City Hall’s real estate transactions.
In order to find the money for the project, City Hall will borrow $10 million from its wastewater and water funds, said Mack, who added the rest of the money will come from funds left over from the recently constructed new police and fire headquarters, as well as one-time savings left over from last fiscal year. Council members also agreed Tuesday night to allow staff to issue up to $50 million in bonds to replenish those funds.
Part of that money also could go towards the cost of converting the lumber yard into a park, perhaps with underground parking and playing fields. Though plans haven’t been discussed and it’s too early to say how much a new park would cost, Mack said converting the land will definitely cost millions of dollars.
“Park development could be as much as $3 million an acre... it could be almost as much as the ($18.5 million) acquisition,” Mack said Wednesday.
Fisher isn’t closing down because of profit losses, manager Mitch Byard said. It’s closing because Washington-based lumber firm Weyerhaeuser Company, which owns Fisher and several other lumberyards, decided to put the land on the lucrative market.
“They wanted the money. I guess we couldn’t give it to them, but we’re doing fine,” Byard said. “I think there’s a lot of things there. I guess they viewed it that way (as an issue of money). I didn’t view it that way, but they did.”
Elected officials couldn’t discuss potential uses for the site at the Tuesday meeting, but they said Santa Monica suffers from a shortage of open space and officials have long looked at the property as a way to remedy that.
Seven members of the community spoke about the purchase, each of them praising the council and urging it to get to work expanding Memorial Park.
“Although I understand that acquisition is the issue on the table tonight, I think you are also aware that the issue in Santa Monica is that we don’t have enough open space, we don’t have enough park space,” said Susan Cloke, vice chairwoman of City Hall’s Recreation and Parks Commission. “We can’t accommodate our youth, we can’t accommodate anybody... This is the constant refrain in this city.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 14, 2004. Read the original PDF.