By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

February 22, 2010 -- Agensys Inc., a biotechnology firm proposing to build a 153,000-square-foot building on the east end of Santa Monica, is demanding its project get full City approval by the end of the summer or else it might not get built at all.

Attorney Dale Goldsmith told the Planning Commission about his client’s tight timeline at a float-up session on the proposal last Wednesday.

Goldsmith’s statement comes at a time when City Council member Kevin McKeown is requesting the City cease all focus on development agreements until after the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) of the General Plan is finalized.

McKeown’s request will officially be introduced as a discussion item during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Planning Commissioners Ted Winterer and Jay Johnson have also called for this.

McKeown’s request is not for a moratorium on development agreements, but if approved by the City Council, it would temporarily put an end to Planning Commission and City Council sessions on development agreements, so everybody can focus on the LUCE.

McKeown said last week that the various development agreements going through the planning pipeline were a cause for “concern and confusion.” ("Multiple Development Agreements Confusing Public, McKeown Says," February 11, 2010)

Agensy is urging the council to act quickly on its proposal because the firm has a deadline to acquire the lease of the City-owned property from the Lionstone Group, a real estate investment firm.

Lionstone has already granted extensions and will not give anymore, Goldsmith told the Commission.

“Agensys not being a developer is not in the business of buying and selling real estate,” Goldsmith said. “They only want to make the big financial commitment of acquiring the lease if they get the City approvals to build this headquarters facility.”

Goldsmith added that the company is also desperate to move from its five smaller facilities scattered across the city into one building for office space, research and development and manufacturing. He said the existing situation makes work difficult.

“Each day that goes by is compromising the ability to come up with a great new cancer drug,” Goldsmith said.

If a development agreement is not finalized by the end of the summer, Agensys could consider leaving Santa Monica, where it has been located since its founding in 1997.

Winterer noted the ambitious timeline is “pretty fast given historical standards.” Goldsmith agreed with the comment.

“We realize the challenges, but we are hopeful that staff and the applicant are up to it,” he said.

The proposal received less than favorable reviews from the commissioners on the project design. Commission Chair Hank Koning, who is an architect, said the architecture was “poor” and called the design “fortress-like.”

Koning spoke for several minutes about what he considered to be various flaws, including minimal landscaping, supposed pedestrian pathways that do not access anywhere outside the facility and a lack of appropriate community benefits. A development agreement requires the applicant to offer community benefits.

Winterer said, “We’ve replaced sort of that urban grittiness with what seems more like a corporate headquarters with lots of glass.”

Although the project is located across the street from the future light rail station at Bergamot Station, several commissioners were concerned about the lack of a solid plan for traffic reduction.

The project calls for 300 parking spaces. This proposal is one of several in the area that is currently making their way through the planning pipeline, and residents are worried all of them will increase traffic congestion.

Two buildings currently occupy the project site -- an L-shaped office structure and a rectangular warehouse. Winterer asked if it were possible to readapt the existing structures rather than build a whole new project.

Agensys officials said this was not possible because the existing structures, especially the warehouse, were not appropriate for the needs of the firm.