Monday, September 21, 2015

GBIC Board Meeting, 9/21/15: San Diego Developer Makes A Pitch to Promote North Brownsville Industrial Park

John Villarreal, Sam Marasco,  Jason Hilts
The North Brownsville Industrial Park, $4.2 million spent, 73 acres, 11 sites with full utilities, last saw action at its ribbon-cutting four years ago.  It sits idle, unused, unwanted, another GBIC failure reminiscent of Titan Tire.  Knowledgeable truckers, either loading or unloading in Brownsville, frequent it as a free overnight stop, before moving on down the road.

Enter Sam Marasco of LandGrant Development, a lawyer with a lapsed law license, but a ton of real estate experience and tangible results in large scale commercial real estate projects on the border with $400,000,000 capitalization, introduced by BEDC Director Jason Hilts during Agenda item #3 at Monday's GBIC Board Meeting.  


GBIC Board Meeting, 9/21/2015
Marasco, said to already be working on a downtown mall in Brownsville, is intrigued by the industrial park.  He wants assurance from the GBIC, that if he spends time and money attracting vendors, doing a feasibility study, he will be given "exclusivity and confidentiality" until he and the board can agree on a contract to move forward.


Las Americas Outlet Mall, San Ysidro, CA
One of Marasco's more successful projects, Las Americas Outlet Mall, sits in San Ysidro, CA, just outside San Diego. Marasco feels he has a "skill set" to make border projects work, but indicates success requires a "stable political scene.

A more problematic project for Marasco was the Mercado Project at Barrio Logan.  Marasco, after obtaining the land for a mere $100,  ran into difficulty, including lawsuits and no work completed on the project after years.  3-400 jobs promised and $307 million in revenue to the city did not materialize.  The City of San Diego, disputing Marasco'sownership of the property entered into agreement with Shea Properties, who eventually produced a multi-use residential and commercial complex winning design awards.

Just before the GBIC went into Executive Session to talk over an agreement with Marasco, Board Member Ed Sikes expressed hesitancy to enter into anything creating "liability" for the board. City Attorney Mark Sossi, who receives $5,000 per month to lawyer for the board, assured Sikes that the modifications he'd made to the contract guaranteed that both the board and Marascos could "walk away from the deal without liability."

Commissioner Debbie Portillo read a prepared statement in support of the GBIC working with Mr. Marasco.  Essentially, she said she'd seen such partnerships work in the past.  Commissioner John Villarreal said he'd attended the ribbon-cutting for the industrial park, but not seen any progress since then.  He praised Marascos skill in working through problems "on another project with the city."

Footnote:  The original Agenda item #3 for the 9/18 meeting concerned Jacobs Engineering and the Small Area Plan.  At the 9/21 meeting, Zeke Silva spoke against the plan and its Phase II price tag during Public Comment.  But, the board had replaced Jacobs Engineering with the San Diego developer, Sam Marasco in the Agenda #3 slot.  Later, when I told a board member that we expected to hear from Oscar Garcia, Jr. during Agenda item #3, the reply was:  "We're so tired of him."    

12 comments:

  1. Look at the Orbs in the second photo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zeke doesn't want gbic to give money to anyone so he can have it all for his pathetic trucking company.

    ReplyDelete
  3. if this expert from afar sees a $400 mil opportunity in one of GBIC's wasted boondogles then he should just go for it. Where people get the idea that they can just blow in here like they were Carlos Quintanilla and just demand that control of assets be turned over to them is beyond me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What downtown Mall are you talking about?

    ReplyDelete
  5. You guys voted for Jessica Tetreau and now she is taking all kinds of perks for her vote. Do you actually think that Debbie and John were there for support???/ They were there to make sure Jessica did what Carlos Marin ordered them to do. Jessida only does what they tell her to do. Jessica has no mind of her own that is why they put her on the GBIC board to be able to swindle funds into their pockets through engineering companies that subcontract Ambiotech and funnel money back into the commissioners political campaigns to be used as they see fit.

    Jim what happened to you??????? You used to be good, now you are just a puppet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A puppet for reporting on a meeting? LMAO

      Delete
    2. Jajajaja Inche Sergio you still ass hurt rub some Vaporub.

      Delete
  6. You should watch what you say 12:23. Your lies are stupid enough to be sued over.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. if you are going to threat law suits understand that you will open the door to discovery. That means you will get to disclose via subpoena ALL of your bank deposits, your finances, ALL your TEXTS, emails ( both personal and business) your income and anything else the defendant asks for their defense. If what they posted was a lie then don't worry about it, but if it is true and you choose to get a judge to access Jim Barton blog then Jim would have to give every Anonymous Comment people didn't' like or was a lie. Interesting to know that your threats could jeopardize many lives including yours for posting a threat of a law suit. Remember Fly Frontera??? Now it is Oscar Garcia and this new guy Sam Marasco and those are only a few that we know of. Everyone sees Brownsville as desperate and willing to give out hundreds of thousands to anyone that has snake oil to sell or some crazy idea to make millions with oxygen.

      Delete
    2. They are easy to convince with a modest monetary incentive.

      Delete
  7. For the most part, elected city officials are just a bunch of unethical muertos de hambre ....cheap to pay off and with no independent thinking skills Portillo is a dumb bimbo, Gowan a blue blood in her mind only,John and Ricardo are pathetic ass kissers....all fools easily manipulated by the devil himself, rat - face Mayor Martinez . Ughhh !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He doesn't have a rat face. It is a mouse face. Quit trying to give rats such a bad name.

      Delete