Hercules will transfer development properties

Mercury News

From The Article:

HERCULES -- The oversight board of the Redevelopment Successor Agency on Monday approved a state-mandated deal to transfer three large development properties from one arm of the city to another. The move will not impair pending deals with developers for the properties, officials said, but will facilitate the developers' efforts to get title insurance.

Sycamore Crossing, Parcel C and Victoria Crescent once were owned by the now-defunct Hercules Redevelopment Agency, which transferred them to the city in March 2011 to satisfy most of a pre-existing $34.9 million debt for loans and construction costs.

The agency had bought the three properties -- 1.75 acres, 17.25 acres and 6.37 acres in size -- for a total of about $31.8 million. Another parcel originally in the batch, known as the Yellow Freight property, cost $1.9 million when the agency bought it; it was sold by the city in early 2012 for about $1.3 million

Earlier this month, state Controller John Chiang deemed the March 2011 transfers "unallowable" under the rules accompanying the statewide abolition of redevelopment agencies in early 2012, and ordered the three properties transferred to the Redevelopment Agency's successor agency. The city itself is the successor agency; the properties will be placed in a separate portfolio.

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