$42.5 million Land Purchase Up For Final OK Monday
Written by 991KBU on July 3, 2018
Malibu’s city council is being called back from summer vacation next Monday to sign the mortgage for the purchase of three vacant lots … three very important vacant lots.
The city is buying almost 10 acres of land called the chili cook off site …
Also … a one acre site surrounded by streets at Webb Way and Pacific Coast Highway … and the 18 Acre lot used for Christmas tree sales at Point Dume.
Next Monday … the city Council will likely approve borrowing about $22 million to help pay for the $42.5 million land package.
Cash on hand in the amount of $13 million will be used for the purchase … with the remaining $7 million being redirected from Metro transportation sales tax projects.
That money had been directed towards widening Pacific Coast Highway in eastern Malibu … to solve parking pedestrian and bicycle safety issues there.
Instead … the city will build park and ride lots at Point Dume and at the Civic Center … on the land being purchased on Monday.
The city is paying 4% interest on the mortgage borrowings.
The City manager says there is more than enough money in the bank to swing the 13 million dollars down payment.
Malibu has done this before.
It borrowed money more than a decade ago to buy Legacy Park and the Malibu Lumberyard.
The city makes more than $2 million a year in profit as a landlord there … although some of that money is going to have to be redirected to fix the salt water engineering disaster … that killed trees at Legacy Park.
Right now … the city’s annual mortgage payments for the Legacy Park and Trancas Field purchases total about $3.2 million.
Those mortgage payments overall will go up to about 4 1/2 million dollars after the three new parcels are purchased … according to figures from the city manager Reva Feldman.
Malibu’s property tax revenues increase so much … as residential properties are bought … sold … flipped and remodeled … that the city can afford this … she says.
