April 2, 2010 (San Pedro, CA).  SFI Bridgeview, LLC, a subsidiary of iStar Financial Inc., a leading publicly traded finance company focused on the real estate industry, announced today that it has taken ownership of Ponte Vista, a 62-acre residential property located on Western Avenue in the community of San Pedro, in a negotiated transfer of the property.

iStar Financial was the primary lender for the Ponte Vista project since 2005, and will lead the development as it moves through the entitlement process in the City of Los Angeles.

“We look forward to working with Harbor Area residents to build a high-quality, sustainable community that we can all be proud of and enjoy,” said Michael Dorsch, Executive Vice-President at iStar Financial.  “We plan to work with the community, Councilwoman Hahn, and the Planning Commission to move the development forward as expeditiously as possible.”

With an asset base in excess of $15 billion, iStar is one of the country’s largest publicly traded commercial real estate finance companies, managing nearly 40 million square feet of high-quality real estate located across the country.  iStar, headquartered in New York City with offices in Santa Monica and Irvine, has extensive experience in the Southern California real estate market. Currently, approximately $1.3 billion of the Company’s total assets are located in the Southern California region.

“iStar has closely followed the Ponte Vista development process and understands the concerns that have been raised by area residents over the past several years,” stated Dorsch.  “We ask the community for patience while we work to develop a revised plan that reflects the valuable community input that has been voiced in the various hearings and open houses held on the project.”

For more information, please contact the Ponte Vista Community Outreach Office at (310) 241- 0699.

Although plans for the revised Ponte Vista Residential Community have not been finalized, Ponte Vista has been busy with activity. Last week, Camp del Corazon, a nonprofit organization that provides a free summer camp for children ages 7-17 with heart disease, stored their cars at Ponte Vista while staff worked on Catalina Island. By providing free parking for the Camp’s staff and counselors, Ponte Vista was able support the organization efforts by saving them parking fees. 

Camp del Corazon started in 1995, with summer camps consisting of just 50 campers. Over the years, the camp has grown to two five-day sessions with close to 300 campers. Camp del Corazon is staffed completely by volunteer counselors, nurses, and physicians who give of their hearts to help these special kids, and Ponte Vista is happy to have been able to help! To find out more about Camp del Corazon, visit www.campdelcorazon.org. 

The Ponte Vista site is also still active with law enforcement training. Every month, law enforcement agencies such as the LAPD, CHP, DEA, ICE, LA County Sheriff’s Department, and other police agencies from various cities throughout LA County come use the facilities and empty homes at Ponte Vista for training purposes. They are able to use the structures to play out various real life scenarios and to do movement training, and they also use the empty streets at Ponte Vista for training as well. Ponte Vista has provided this service to law enforcement agencies for over 4 years, and is proud to be able to continue to do so.

Daily Breeze

Los Angeles planners reported Thursday that progress was being made in discussions with the developers of San Pedro’s Ponte Vista housing plan.

A revised plan, however, probably won’t be ready for formal consideration and approval for another six to nine months, said Betsy Weisman, principal planner for the city.

The report was made at a meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Commission.

“Staff has been meeting with the applicants every two weeks,” Weisman said after the meeting. The discussions have been focused on “very general concepts,” she said, with a follow-up report scheduled at the Nov. 12 meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Commission.

The private meetings will continue as more details are worked out for the development proposed for the 61.5-acre parcel on Western Avenue across the street from Green Hills Cemetery.

The big sticking point remains the number of homes and the project’s effects on Western Avenue traffic.

The status report presented Thursday, Weisman said, “was all very low key,” with no questions posed by commissioners.

On August 13^th, Los Angeles City Planner, David Olivo, presented a status report to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on the Ponte Vista residential community. 

Mr. Olivo informed the Commission that discussions between the planning department and the developer have been successful since the last Commission meeting on Ponte Vista in April of 2009.  The planning department and the Ponte Vista team have made progress towards the development of a revised plan.  He also told the Commission that he expected that a Revised Specific Plan for Ponte Vista would come together within the next 60 days.

The Revised Specific Plan for Ponte Vista will be amended to reflect the changes to the residential community as well as to the park, trails, and retail areas.  The Revised Specific Plan once approved will guide the future build-out of Ponte Vista.  The Specific Plan includes architecture, landscape design, color palette, building heights, circulation, parking, Mary Star access, water elements, and open space features and design.

Mr. Olivo told Commissioners that he believed that a revised DEIR would be circulated for 45 days on the revised project for public review and comment. 

Commissioners were further informed that the planning staff would be back to them within 90 days with another progress update and that the overall project would be back to the Commission for consideration in about 9 months.

Representatives for the development team were in attendance at the meeting and told the Commissioners that they look forward to returning to the Commission at the first meeting in November to present the project timeline, which would include the schedule for the recirculation of the revised DEIR.

The Ponte Vista development team will begin to prepare the Recirculated Revised EIR for the Ponte Vista Specific Plan immediately after the revised development plan is formulated and ready for presentation to the community. 

Ponte Vista is a planned residential community that features a two-acre village green with adjacent retail shops, walking trails and open space, workforce and senior housing, and town homes and courtyard homes in a sustainable, high-quality, energy-efficient design.

The development team plans to release a schedule to the community for the revised plan in September 2009. 

On April 9, 2009, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission requested that the Ponte Vista Development Team and the City Planning Department staff work together on revised plans for the Ponte Vista residential community that incorporate the developer’s plan as well as the recommendations made by the Planning Commission and the Planning Staff and report back to the Commission on August 13, 2009. 

Ponte Vista and the City Planning Department staff have been meeting to work out the details of the project since April. Planning Staff will be providing the Commission with a progress report on our work at their meeting on August 13th.  A revised conceptual plan will not be presented on August 13th and we do not expect any action to be taken by the Commission in regards to Ponte Vista at the meeting. 

Working through the revisions and completing a revised plan for Ponte Vista is a complex effort that involves architects, engineers, landscape architects and planners.  The Ponte Vista development team wants to ensure that the revised plan for Ponte Vista addresses many of the comments heard in our rounds of interviews and small group meetings and takes into account feedback from our March 2009 Open Houses.  We are also working to incorporate the many recommendations made by the City of Los Angeles Planning Staff and Planning Commission. 

The team is also striving to include as part of the revised plan many of the amenities and features of the Ponte Vista development for which many community members have expressed strong support over the years.  These features include a two-acre village green with adjacent retail shops, walking trails and open space, workforce and senior housing, and sustainable, high-quality, energy-efficient design.

We appreciate the work of the Planning Commission, City Planning staff and community members during this process, and we plan to release a schedule for the revised plan in September 2009.