For over two years, the Community Redevelopment Agency has tried in vain to develop a 20-acre parcel of land in southeast Downtown into a cleantech corridor (pictured: an imagined view of the space). The Downtown News says the latest fail involves an aborted sale from the CRA to Genton Property Group, a Culver City-based company that considered using the land to develop green/cleantech companies. Genton abandoned a purchase, saying the land is too contaminated for its taste; the CRA says clean-up efforts would only cost between $1 million to $2.6 million (though it would involve building up to 19 vapor extraction wells on the site.) The CRA bought the land in 2008 for $14 million, knowing the parcel needed to be remediated (there was a rail spill over 20 years ago). After the CRA slogged trough failed development deals involving the Italian rail car maker AnsaldoBreda and electric car company Coda Automotive (and, as of late, facing its own likely demise thanks to budget cuts) the CRA sought to simply sell the land. After the Genton mess, the CRA is looking at another real estate company to buy the land, and the clock's ticking on several fronts--not only does Governor Brown want the CRA to croak, the redevelopment organization has a loan on the cleantech property due in July.
· Dirty Land Derails Cleantech Deal [Downtown News]
· Cleantech Corridor Archives [Curbed LA]
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