LEAVE SPORTS ARENA PLANS TO NEXT MAYOR

In normal times, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s announcement that he had accepted the recommendation of his in-house selection panel to task a development team led by Brookfield Properties and ASM Global with planning and building a huge entertainment district on the city’s 48-acre sports arena site might have been reason to celebrate. Mayoral aides point out the decision has been months in the making, and the selection panel followed the guidelines it had initially laid out in choosing the companies. Given ASM Global’s reputation for developing such first-rate projects as L.A. Live, it has instant credibility. It’s exciting to think about what a modern arena and new parks, housing and commercial properties would bring to San Diego.

But these are not normal times. A 19-story-tall shadow hangs over Faulconer: his 2016 rush to enter into a $127 million, 20-year lease-to-own contract for an office tower at 101 Ash Street without any serious vetting — and the wrenching subsequent discovery that the aging building needs at least $115 million in improvements before it could be used safely.

Last week, Faulconer decided the city would stop making its monthly lease payment of $535,000 in an attempt to shift the narrative from how he had abjectly failed his responsibilities to the notion that the city had been snookered by Cisterra Development, the real-estate firm that brokered the “asis” deal. Lawsuits loom, but perhaps this strategy will work and Cisterra will agree to a compromise.

Yet this doesn’t change the fact that, as The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board noted a month ago, when it comes to real estate management, “Literally no one in San Diego has less credibility on the subject than Kevin Faulconer.”

His mistakes-were-made rhetoric ducking full responsibility for the fiasco makes this plain. With three months left in office, he should leave sports arena development decisions to his successor.

How could there not be questions already? Cybele Thompson, who Faulconer chose to head the real estate assets department in 2014 — who spoke of getting a “game-changer” for the sports arena site in February — who added, “We want to make sure we get it right” in July — resigned last month amid all the swirling questions about 101 Ash St. Get it right? Faulconer himself should want to hit pause.

That’s clearly the preference of one of the two remaining mayoral candidates. City Council President Barbara Bry put out a statement denouncing Faulconer’s decision and saying the public was not given enough time to examine the city’s options and then weigh in. She said that, as a “bare minimum,” the city should wait until the November vote on Measure E, which would waive the 30-foot height limit on projects in the Midway area. Bry opposes the measure but makes a good point that its fate will play a key role in the future of the sports arena site.

Assemblyman Todd Gloria, who finished in first place in March’s mayoral primary, didn’t reject Falconer’s decision in an emailed statement. Gloria, who supports Measure E, said that if elected, he would take a close look at the plan to determine if it “is in the best interests of the city.” It is possible that — unlike what happened with the 101 Ash Street contract — the city sweated the details and has a smart plan. We just don’t know. And we’d have greater confidence if Faulconer wasn’t involved.

Obviously, there is a political context to the two candidates’ views. Bry uses Gloria’s vote as a councilman for the Ash Street lease as a club against him, saying she would have had the savvy to oppose it. Gloria backers counter that such savvy wasn’t evident when Bry was part of a unanimous council vote in 2018 to approve $30 million in building repairs.

Housing and real estate in general and the fate of the sports arena in particular must be a major focus of the mayoral campaign. But even if, as his staff points out, Faulconer isn’t making decisions that would bind the hands of the winner, he should not be guiding current planning in any way. Mistakes that cost truckloads of money have consequences.