DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO –
An expanded conflict-of-interest investigation by downtown San Diego's redevelopment authority has found a problem with the proposed Civic Center project.
Centre City Development Corp. officials announced yesterday that the consultant with a $700,000 contract to lead the agency's financial analysis has a tie to Gerding Edlen, the Oregon developer that is the last remaining contender to rebuild San Diego's City Hall.
An executive at the consultant firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, recently took a job at CB Richard Ellis, which helped Gerding put its proposal together.
In response, CCDC officials said they will hire another outside firm to check the consultant's analysis. Jones Lang LaSalle will cover the cost, CCDC chairman Fred Maas said at a news conference at the besieged agency's offices.
CCDC has been under intense scrutiny over the past month after revelations that former President Nancy Graham had an undisclosed business relationship with The Related Co., which was chosen by the agency for a $409 million public-private project.
Despite Graham's claims she had no recent ties to Related, court documents have shown she received $3.5 million from the developer, a portion coming as late as June 2007, for her work on a Florida condo project.
The downtown agency said yesterday it has widened a previously announced conflict-of-interest probe to include all projects going back three years. Graham joined the quasi-governmental agency in December 2005.
“This process will not be pretty,” Maas said.
Jim Lough, the lawyer hired for the probe, said he will interview witnesses, do legal research and review e-mails for his investigation. Lough said he will also try to interview Graham, who resigned last month, citing the ill health of her mother in Tennessee.
Maas said the extra work on the Civic Center could delay the project, which was scheduled to go to the City Council for approval in October. If the delay stretches into December, the project will face a new City Council. One future councilman -- Carl DeMaio of District 5 -- has said he opposes the redevelopment plan.
The agency also said it will ask all current and previous project applicants to state whether they have, or ever had, financial relationships with Graham or any existing CCDC official.
Jeanette Steele: (619) 293-1030; jen.steele@uniontrib.com
