The city of Long Beach is suing its tenant at a premier piece of real estate along the downtown shoreline, alleging the company owes at least $3.75 million in past-due fees.
The company, TIC Catalina Landing LLC, pays the city $1.3 million annually to manage and rent out four office buildings, a three-level parking structure and a saltwater basin with various docks on Golden Shore Drive. According to the company’s website, renters include the Catalina Island Conservancy, T-Mobile, the law firm Keesal, Young & Logan and Catalina Express, which uses the docks for its ferry service to the island.
For years, Long Beach alleges, the company has failed to hand over a portion of its parking revenue, which is supposed to help pay for dredging the nearby channel to a depth of at least 15 feet so vessels can easily pass through.
In a lawsuit filed in June, attorneys for Long Beach allege TIC Catalina Landing stopped paying the fees in 2022, amounting to more than $3.75 million in overdue payments.
TIC Catalina Landing has filed a countersuit, saying it stopped paying the fees because Long Beach reneged on its responsibility to maintain the channel — only dredging the basin once in 23 years.
Instead, the company alleges, the city was depositing the fees into its dwindling tidelands fund and diverting it to other projects along the coastline.
TIC Catalina Landing estimated that the city received “$15 to $20 million in annual Parking Revenue Fees since 2002,” despite the actual cost of a single dredging being “at most, a few hundred thousand dollars,” the company’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
The company further alleged that the city knew the channel needed dredging since at least 2023. A Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed that in 2023, the Army Corps informed the city that the water depth in the basin was less than 15 feet in various spots, the company’s lawyers wrote.
Despite that, the city told the Army Corps not to dredge the basin, the company’s lawyers alleged.
In court papers, the city’s lawyers say Long Beach has held up its end of the bargain because the water depth at low tide “is sufficient to permit [vessels] to navigate the basin.”
For years, TIC Catalina Landing has asked the city to renegotiate the dredge agreement, according to the company. They say the city has refused, claiming any discount “would run contrary to the city’s fiduciary responsibility to the public to maximize the return on City assets.”
Alleging the city wasn’t holding up its end of the bargain, TIC Catalina Landing terminated the dredge agreement in August 2024 and asserted it no longer owed the parking revenue fee.
The two sides are due back in court for a case management conference on Oct. 6.
This is not the first time the city has sued the tenant managing the Catalina Landing property over a dredging issue.
In 2005, the city sued AC-Catalina Landing LLC after it failed to pay the parking fee in 2004 and 2005.
That case ended in a settlement between the two sides, with AC-Catalina Landing agreeing to pay slightly more than $1 million in exchange for the city creating a $1 million fund solely dedicated to dredging the canal. However, the agreement to maintain that earmarked fund sunset at the end of 2007.