Officials Still Hope to Reopen Old Todd Property as Shipyard : Harbor: But use of the site for a container facility or as a storage yard for new cars is being considered.

Amid mounting uncertainty over the fate of the old Todd Shipyards in San Pedro, Los Angeles port officials said this week that they still hope to reopen the site as a shipyard but are also considering the property for a container facility or a storage yard for new automobiles.

Since Todd closed three years ago, port officials have pledged to try and bring another shipyard to the site. However, concerns about the port’s commitment to that plan are being expressed by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the Harbor area, along with union officials and the chairman of a company that wants to open a shipyard at the Todd property.

Specifically, Flores and the others said this week, they are troubled by the lack of public discussion in recent months of the port’s plans for the 110-acre Todd site.

“There are some suspicions around town that there may be plans that include something other than a shipyard . . . (and) I am a little suspicious when things are happening in the dark,” she said. “This is public property. This is a public entity. And maybe there is nothing clandestine going on, but I want to know what is going on.”

For months now, port officials have said they are interested in proposals for a ship building or ship repair business at the Todd site, which in the mid-1980s employed about 6,000 workers. At the same time, however, officials have argued that none of the people interested in the property have proven that they have the financial wherewithal to open a shipyard.

“We would be happy to have a shipbuilding facility there,” said Harbor Commission President Ronald Lushing. “It would solve many of our problems” in providing more employment in the harbor, bringing new revenues to the port and avoiding the costly conversion of the old Todd property to other uses, he said.

“But the facts are no one has submitted a viable offer,” Lushing said.

However, retired Rear Adm. Stuart Platt, chairman of a fledgling company hoping to lease the site, said port staffers have been inflexible about the up-front costs required for a lease.

“I am prepared to say they are not negotiating . . . at the (staff) level. It has been a series of ultimatums,” said Platt, chairman of Los Angeles-Long Beach Shipyards, a company formed last year specifically to bid on the Todd site.

To date, port officials have stood firm in demanding that any company wanting to lease the site must prove that it has strong financial backing. Port officials have asked $6 million for the shipyard’s equipment, $2 million for its environmental cleanup and at least $2.5 million in annual rent.

If a company cannot come up with the money, port Executive Director Ezunial Burts said, it raises doubt about its ability to raise the total of $20 million needed to launch a shipyard. To date, Burts said neither Platt’s Los Angeles-Long Beach Shipyards nor another start-up venture, Los Angeles Shipyards, has proven it has the $20 million.

But Platt and officials of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, Local 9, have countered that the port’s requirements have only complicated an already difficult task of seeking investors during a recession for an industry that for years has been in decline.

“They are asking penthouse prices for a facility where the prior owner went into bankruptcy,” Platt said. “And though the port’s position has the appearance of being reasonable, it has proven to be a major roadblock and they know it.”

Moreover, Platt said, it is “common waterfront gossip” that Lonnie Tang, the port’s chief negotiator for the property, is actively seeking a container terminal for the site--a claim denied by Tang and other port officials.

Officials acknowledge that they are reviewing a variety of options for the property but they decline to discuss specific proposals or identify non-ship building companies interested in the site.

The yard, which is now being used for storage of new imported cars, could be converted to several other uses including a car storage lot, port officials say. But those options, including the container facility, would require the port to spend millions of dollars on cleaning up and converting the former shipyard property, officials say.

In the meantime, shipyard company chairman Platt said his company will continue to seek the financing needed to win a port lease for the property.

“From the standpoint of trying to put people back to work, they (port officials) are making it very difficult,” Platt said. “However, I remain very committed to this project and believe we will soon find the right mix of investors and project.”

Similarly, a top official of Platt’s competitor, Los Angeles Shipyard, said Wednesday he remains confident that his company will secure an investor and begin negotiations with the port. Otherwise, Los Angeles Shipyard will go out of business by the end of March, its general manager, John Chernesky, said.

“We are really hopeful that things will come together,” Chernesky said. He added, however, that Los Angeles Shipyard cannot wait indefinitely for private investors or government officials to see the public value of reopening the shipyard.

“We see Mayor (Tom) Bradley going out to Van Nuys to court 2,600 (auto) workers and we would employ that many people in two years. And we hear about the governor’s position to fund new business, but that is just rhetoric,” Chernesky said. “We can’t do this (wait) forever.”