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City to Give Billionaire Broad $7.7M Prime Real Estate For $1 |
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Written by Tibby Rothman, LA Weekly
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Monday, 10 May 2010 15:20 |
 Broad Museum's scandalous math: A $7.7 million land gift to billionaire from broke Los Angeles City Hall
What can $1 a year get a billionaire in Los Angeles these days?
Evidently, a property worth $7.7 million. According to a document obtained by the L.A. Weekly, that's the value of the prime downtown square footage near Disney Concert Hall that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others are secretly negotiating to rent for 99 years, nearly for free, to Broad for his foundation offices and an attached, but much smaller, art museum.
Here's the truth, even though it's often unmentioned in media coverage of this touchy issue:
The roughly two acres of land is owned by city taxpayers (not by the county, as Los Angeles media have wrongly reported). But it took a request from county officials -- not the City Council or Villaraigosa -- to find out how much the land is really worth.
The $7.7 million valuation was determined by Ronald L. Buss, of Buss-Shelger Associates, a real estate consultant who reported his findings to Los Angeles County CEO William T. Fujioka in a letter on May 6.
So far Villaraigosa has made no effort to find out if 4 million Los Angeles residents want to fork over a $7.7 million piece of their land to Eli Broad.
Read the full story, here.
Related Links:
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Broad says downtown art museum would draw
better than one in Santa Monica
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Last Updated on Monday, 10 May 2010 15:20 |
