Pictured right, Alonzo Taylor and Anthony Johnson at the Boys & Girls Club near King Park in Long Beach. Photo by Ryan ZumMallen.
12:20am | Fifteen year-old Alonzo Taylor was really looking forward to seeing a Kroc Center built in his neighborhood.
On Thursday, the Lakewood High student was at the Boys & Girls Club near King Park, the only open space near his home in a tough central Long Beach area. He plays basketball with his friends here and was looking forward to seeing a larger community center with multiple courts open up just a few blocks away.
“I knew a lot of people that were going to go [to the Kroc Center], especially for the gyms,” Taylor says.
He and friend Anthony Johnson, an 18-year old senior at Poly High, prepared to take the court in a rec league basketball game on the small Boys & Girls Club gym floor. They found out about the Kroc Center a year ago, as part of a group of local teens that lobbied the Long Beach City Council to voice support for the project.
They were both eager to spend time at the Kroc Center, but found out before their basketball game on Thursday afternoon that the Salvation Army decided to withdraw from the project this week, essentially pulling the plug.
“It’s hard to find a place that’s safe, so you don’t have to worry about… your life, basically,” says Taylor.
“With all the shooting going on around here,” Johnson says, shaking his head.
A few weeks ago, the boys lost a friend and teammate when Jeffrey Jackson was shot and killed by an unknown shooter in downtown Long Beach. Jackson was the basketball team’s starting point guard.
The boys know about the dangers of the streets all too well. With limited means of transportation, Taylor and Johnson were looking forward to welcoming a safe haven to their neighborhood.
“[The Kroc Center] was special because it was helping the community,” says Johnson. “But I guess since it got canceled that means things will go back to the same.”
On Thursday, Long Beach city officials were still scrambling to figure out exactly what killed the deal and how the issues could be resolved. City Manager Pat West said that an emergency, all-hands-on-deck meeting was scheduled for Friday morning as City staff prepare to fix the soured agreement.
“We do want to reach out to the Salvation Army and see what we need to do to bring them back to the table,” says West. “It’s a very cordial relationship but we certainly want to resurrect the project.”
But Salvation Army officials say they’re not going to reconsider.
“We’re willing to meet and hear their concerns and ideas, but we have let them know that we’re not asking for them to give us a proposal for an appeal,” said Major Cindy Foley, spokesperson for the Salvation Army. She said that the Salvation Army ultimately decided to withdraw from the project for many reasons, but the main two were the inability to meet fundraising deadlines and difficulties in acquiring and paying for improvements to the site.
The Salvation Army came into the project with about $75 million from a donation left by McDonald’s heir Joan Kroc, and also brought about $24 million of their own. The Salvation Army has used similar funds to build several Kroc Centers across the country, and asked Long Beach to kick in about $15 million for their share.
Fundraising was simply not where it needed to be, Major Foley said, adding that fundraisers had set themselves with an April 30 deadline to raise $7.5 million, at least $5 million of which needed to be in cash.
“If the Long Beach community is having such a difficult time meeting their current goal, then how would the center be able to operate for years to come?” Major Foley said. “Facilities should be built in communities that show local support.”
City officials and others close to the negotiations say that recent months had seen drastic fundraising improvement, and that there was confidence about the amount raised.
John Edmond, chief of staff for 6th District Councilmember Dee Andrews – whose jurisdiction includes the site – said Thursday that the Redevelopment Agency had agreed with a plan to co-develop $7 million worth of property that could be counted as a fundraising asset. Others said that plans were in the works to possibly obtain funds from local Congressmember Laura Richardson, while still others said that it was possible that Stimulus funds could be used for work on the property.
Major Foley said that despite those claims – some of which she had not heard before – the goal was simply not met by the set deadline.
She also said that Salvation Army higher-ups were unsettled because the Salvation Army would not have full control of the property site. Under the agreement, the County of Los Angeles would provide a 99-year lease to the City of Long Beach, which would hand the property over to the Salvation Army.
“They moved mountains to make this happen,” says West (pictured right). “I don’t think they’ve ever given out a 99-year lease in the history of the County.”
Once the actual Kroc Center construction was complete, the Salvation Army would assume ownership of the building, but surrounding fields and parking lots would remain under the lease. Every other Kroc Center in the western United States had been either owned outright in advance or purchased in cash prior to construction.
The Salvation Army was aware of the unique situation heading into the initial agreement five years ago, and Major Foley acknowledged as much. But after five years without progress on acquiring the site, and with some construction costs that have doubled and other emerging issues like liability responsibilities, the weight was too much to bear.
Edmond says that major steps had proven that the project could fight through red tape, citing a massive Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that was released last year and an upcoming Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA) that would have allowed developers to pull permits and begin grading the site. Edmond says that could have come as early as this July.
“We just got that [EIR] completed, were in the final throes of getting this [DDA] completed and all of a sudden our partner pulls out,” says Edmond. “I want them to come back and I want them to be there, but this is not fair.”
There was a lot more to it. The Salvation Army was also fronting the bill to engineer a new water basin and flood management system, since that is the site’s original intention. The development budget soon doubled. And even though the County was generous in leasing the land, the Salvation Army was not comfortable without owning it outright.
Major Foley says the final decision was made during a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Western Territory, which oversees all of the Salvation Army in California and several other nearby states. The board unanimously voted to withdraw support from the project after discussing the results of the April 30 final review.
“Nobody drew a line in the sand,” Edmond says. “There was no deadline or ultimatum given; that would be understandable. Long Beach would have been up to the task.”
Letters were sent to City Hall on Tuesday outlining the board’s decision, and most – if not all – who received a letter were shocked. A Press-Telegram article on Thursday inferred that Major Foley thought that City officials should have seen the announcement coming.
“I never said anything of the like,” Major Foley said. She even acknowledged that the decision from the Western Territory Board of Directors had shocked and disappointed members of the local Salvation Army chapter, many of whom had been working on the Kroc Center project for years.
One of those caught off guard was Evan Lamont, the Salvation Army’s own spokesperson assigned specifically to the project. “None of the issues listed in that letter are insurmountable,” Lamont said, claiming that fundraising was at an acceptable level.
“If [fundraisers] can come to the table with Redevelopment and Congressional funds, there’s definitely enough to push them over the $12 million mark.”
Lamont also said that since the local Salvation Army chapter was working most closely in the negotiations, it was difficult to have the cancellation decision handed down from the Western Territory. Major Foley acknowledged that the manner in which things unfolded had been difficult on those close to the negotiations.
“They’re greatly disappointed, from the advisory board members to private citizens to partner groups,” Major Foley said. “They’ve had an incredible army of people that have helped them to bring this project to completion and they’re devastated by this news.”
Some privately speculated that the Salvation Army may have pulled support from the deal as it neared completion because they would have had trouble making good on their nearly $100 million promise. A New York Times article last summer reported that the original Kroc donation of $900 million had deteriorated to about $774 million after the economic downturn, but Major Foley said that isn’t the case for funds in the Western Territory.
“There’s been no effect upon Kroc funds available for any property,” she said. “The market is definitely in a healthier place than it was a year ago. All the Kroc dollars available for this project are there.”
Major Foley repeatedly complimented City and County staff for their work and described a deal that, in the end, simply proved too complicated to work.
“We don’t feel like we’ll ever be willing to accept this piece, it’s just too complicated,” she said. “We have deep regret that this project as proposed by Long Beach at this point in time was not able to be successful.”
In a city that is sadly no stranger to lofty developments that ultimately fall flat, the death of the Kroc Center project is particularly sour because it was mainly aimed at providing opportunities to impoverished youth. Some say they were skeptical from the beginning for that very reason.
“I’m a little saddened by that, particularly because it’s in an urban area and it seems like when it comes to those areas they don’t put the same time in,” said Thomas Davies, who was at the Boys & Girls Club to pick up his 13-year old son and 11-year old daughter.
“Sometimes I feel that because of the area, sometimes we get the short end of the stick,” Davies said. “And the kids suffer.”
Life goes on back at the Boys & Girls Club. The two rec league teams battled in the undersized gym on rims leaning a little to one side or the other. Taylor led all scorers with an even 30 points in a victory. He’ll play for Lakewood’s varsity team next year.