Airborne San Diego - Gone Forever - ?

[wan2doit 6]

The discussion beginning from 44 min 30 sec until 57 - 46 into this audio file of a Radio Skydive UK interview leads me to think Airborne San Diego will fade into tunnel history but Who Knows.

One of the 2 tunnels experiencing two catastrophic potentially lethal failures about a month apart and a budget of approx 250+% of it's original estimate estimate didn't help.

Sad situation for owners and possible clients.

The discussion - http://radioskydive.co.uk/ep-47-tristan-hampson-headline-interview

[1berto 0]

Yep.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-imperial-purchase-20180206-story.html

[decompresion 2]

1berto

Yep.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-imperial-purchase-20180206-story.html

Reporter Jeff McDonald. San Diego Tribune

San Diego is spending $7 million to buy a failed skydiving center, with no current appraisal

San Diego plans to close escrow this week on a $7 million property without the benefit of an independent appraisal.
Title to the land and improvements changed in October and the current assessment for tax purposes is just over $5.8 million.
The property used to be an indoor skydiving facility and would be converted to a center for homeless services under the city plan.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is planning to spend $7 million to buy an East Village property without the benefit of an independent appraisal, and he’s pushing to close escrow this week.

The land and improvements at 1401 Imperial Ave., where the city wants to open a “housing navigation center,” is assessed at just over $5.8 million. That’s according to county tax records, which often do not reflect market value. The city said no appraisal is required under the municipal code but the sale price was reasonable, according to the city’s principal appraiser.

The property, a 26,000-square-foot indoor skydiving facility that went out of business after a few months last year, also has a lien on it for about $330,000 that was not included in the staff report to the council.

The Jan. 29 report said the property was valued between $15 million and $22 million. One of the two documents provided by the city specifically notes it is not an appraisal. The other was conducted for a previous owner in 2016 at a time when evaluators noted that the San Diego Chargers might secure a new stadium next door.

“The opinions of value expressed in this report are based on estimates and forecasts that are prospective in nature and subject to considerable risk and uncertainty,” the August 2016 appraisal said.

The housing navigation center is one of Faulconer’s key answers to solving the region’s growing homeless population, a social-services crisis that exacerbated a deadly hepatitis A outbreak last year and continues to push hundreds of people to camp on city sidewalks.

The idea is to establish a single entry point where homeless people can sign up to access services and transition from the street into supportive and permanent housing — something the region does not currently have available, Faulconer said.

“The housing navigation center will change that and serve as a model for the rest of the region,” he said in a statement Monday. “We’re moving quickly with this purchase so the facility can open as soon as possible and start connecting people to the support they need to turn their lives around and get into housing.

“The fact that we are buying it for less than half of what experts say it would cost on the open market makes this deal a no-brainer,” the mayor’s statement added.

An independent appraisal is usually the first step real estate investors take before making an offer on a property.

For the navigation center purchase, city officials relied on a two-page broker’s analysis of the property from December 2017. That report by ECP Commercial specifically states that it “is not a formal appraisal” and “no physical due diligence has been performed on the property.”

“Unfortunately there is a lack of comparable sales that take into account the unique nature of this site,” the broker’s opinion states. “Based on the comparable sales in the area (attached hereto as Exhibit ‘A’) we would estimate the property to sell in the $15 million range.”

A memo to council members from Real Estate Assets Department Director Cybele Thompson and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Ronald Villa said, “The property has been appraised at a value between $15,000,000 and $22,000,000.”

The report does not specify that the only actual appraisal was conducted for a previous owner 18 months ago. The report placed the value at $19 million to $22.2 million, and the majority of that valuation — $11.3 million — was ascribed to the furniture and equipment required for the skydiving business.

The money for the city’s purchase is largely coming from federal community-development block grants. The budget also set aside $300,000 for renovation costs, although there was no specific analysis of how much it will cost to convert the skydiving facility to a homeless-services center.

“Any improvements should be minor and will be recommended by the service provider once they have been selected,” city spokeswoman Katie Keach wrote in a statement Monday.

One key demand from the seller, an entity called 1401 Imperial Holding Co. LLC owned by a family trust that acquired the property in October, was a speedy closing.

“The closing date is reasonable,” Keach said by email. “Further, it allows the city to move forward quickly on the project, which will allow the housing navigation center to open approximately one year earlier than previously anticipated.”

Keach said the report to council citing the property value at up to $22 million was reasonable based on multiple reviews by real estate professionals.

“The seller performed both an appraisal and a broker opinion of value which showed that the property was valued in the $15 million to $20 million range,” she wrote.

The property in question is actually two parcels totaling about 10,000 square feet on the southeast corner of 14th Street and Imperial Avenue.

According to county tax rolls, the property was bought by Alan “Buzz” Fink in November 2014 for $1.8 million.

Fink is a Coronado businessman and avid skydiver who invested millions of dollars in Airborne America, the indoor skydiving business that failed last year. He claimed losses of up to $30 million on the investment and is now in litigation with the company that constructed the wind tunnels.

Fink declined to comment due to the ongoing dispute, which already resulted in a $330,000 lien against the property. Keach said the lien is not likely to disrupt the city purchase.

“This is a title exception which the title company will insure around,” she wrote.

Property records show that Fink borrowed millions of dollars from Suncoast Financial Mortgage Corp., a real estate entity owned by financier David Malcolm that is a co-defendant in the lawsuit filed by the wind-tunnel manufacturer.

In January 2016, Fink recorded a $5.5 million mortgage from Suncoast Financial against his Coronado home. Three weeks later, he recorded a secondary mortgage with Suncoast Financial for $12 million secured by the Imperial Avenue property.

By August, weeks before Fink lost the Imperial Avenue property to Suncoast Financial through foreclosure, he owed Malcolm $19 million, county Assessor’s Office records show.

Suncoast Financial turned the property over to 1401 Imperial Holding Co. LLC in September, a transaction that prompted a new assessment by the county that has not yet been completed. A John M. Tworoger trust is the sole owner of the holding company, county records show.

The city expects to award a contract to operate the housing navigation center later this year. Bids for the project, which is two blocks from Father Joe’s Villages, are due at City Hall by next month.

In 2011, when the city committed $16 million to the $32 million renovation of the World Trade Center on Sixth Avenue, it too was promoted as a “one-stop shop” to transition homeless people into permanent housing.

In her statement Monday, Keach said the housing navigation center on Imperial Avenue will complement existing facilities “with a holistic and strategic approach.”

“The navigation center will match clients with various programs and resources that fit their needs instead of trying to find clients that fit a program’s model,” she wrote.

There are no dangerous dives
Only dangerous divers