County Board Approves New Lessee for Tahiti Marina Apartments

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a new lessee for the Tahiti Marina Apartments in Marina del Rey.

The board voted 3 to 0 to approve Tahiti Marina Apartments & Docks, a newly formed limited liability company, as the new lessee. The board previously approved assigning the lessee to current lessee Kamran Hakim in November 1990 and granted a 33-year extension of lease terms on July 20, 2010, with a lease expiration date of Feb. 28, 2055.

Hakim will have control of the newly formed limited liability company and is its sole member. As a condition of the county's acceptance of the new lessee, Hakim is required to fund the new company with at least $20 million of equity.

As part of the transfer agreement, Hakim also has guaranteed completion of renovation work on 149 apartments and 214 existing slips, plus nine end ties on the property, known as Parcel 7S. The parcel has frontage on Tahiti Way and is located east of the Bay Club Apartments and Marina and also overlooks the marina's main channel.

The renovation project does not fall under the 1982 Mello Act, a statewide law designed to provide housing for low and moderate incomes along California's coast, or the county's Marina del Rey affordable housing policies because it is not a redevelopment project.

Marina del Rey is in unincorporated Los Angeles County and is overseen by the county's Department of Beaches and Harbors. Long-term lessees operate the housing units, boat slips and commercial venues in the marina, including restaurants and hotels.

The marina's lessees are taxed by the county and generate roughly $40 million annually for the cash-strapped county. The revenue goes to the county's general fund to pay for such items as law enforcement and health care programs, but some of it also goes to the Department of Beaches and Harbor for beach projects and maintenance throughout the county.