The Boutique Hotel to Nowhere, Rehash, Part 1
2026 is here, portending all sorts of fun for Fullerton. Some haunting spirits will have to be propitiated, among them is the so-called “boutique hotel” fiasco, one of the parting gifts of former incompetent City Manager, Ken Domer left for his ultimate successor, Eric Levitt.
You will recall the project: a small, high end hotel at the train station, that over the years morphed into a massive housing project attached to it.
Domer was the facilitator of the stupid concept cooked up by our former Mayor-for-Hire, the lobbyist Jennifer Fitzgerald. His sole reason for being City Manager, in fact, appeared to be his willingness to enable Fitzgerald’s wish lists into fruition.
And Domer was the fellow who let the project move along, during the gestation – recommending a non-bid, exclusive negotiating agreement with Westpark LLC, a company that couldn’t build a birdhouse. Domer was fired in the spring of 2021 but his boutique child, an infant that should have been strangled in its crib, lived on, proving that make-work ideas supported by staff never die.
The years passed and Levitt became godfather to Domer’s baby. In this time his staff had uncovered a new and willing partner – TA Partners. Enter Johnny Lu and Larry Liu, two con artists who were already getting deep into debt and fraud elsewhere in Southern California.
By the end of 2022 the real disaster struck: on December 20, 2022, the City voted to approve an agreement to deed over its property, the value increased tenfold, without an approved project even in place. The supporters? Ahmad Zahra, Shana Charles, and inexplicably, Bruce Whitaker, the latter ignoring any of the warning signs that his instincts should have been screaming to him.
Three years have passed. None of the milestones in the Development and Disposition Agreement have ben met. And nobody is talking about this fiasco, at least not in public. We have all learned that Larry and Johnny have pleaded guilty to fraud; that their project in Irvine collapsed, probably taken over by whatever investment bank was dumb enough to give them a construction loan.
Has the City even contemplated action? No closed session reporting has been forthcoming and no reasons given for why not. FFFF learned that the original Westpark guy, Craig Hostert’s family is suing Larry and Johnny for their hijacking of the project. They must see some sort of asset there. If so they are right.
Despite having failed to meet contractual deadlines, TA Partners owns this 1.7 acre parcel and is presumably paying their property taxes to keep it in the family. And the property has value thanks to a incompetent City Council majority.
The entitlements approved by Whitaker, Zahra and Charles are worth a fortune, and can, with the City’s approval, be assigned to somebody else, a tactic that City bureaucrats have pursued in the past to keep embarrassing projects alive and kicking. But that may not work because only Zahra and Charles will keep voting for this disaster.
This fiasco is now seven years old and if there’s an end in sight, it isn’t even on the horizon.
Another Whitaker triumph.
Advocating for a development next to the train station be given to someone else? Gee, I wonder who has real estate interest there…
This blog is a mouthpiece for Tony Bushala’s interests. What a joke
Hi Elijah. Too bad your mentor voted to approve this disaster on numerous occasions. I’m not advocating that the development be handed to somebody else. I want the whole thing dead. Improve your reading skills.
Hey dumbass, where did you read that FFFF supports re-assigning this idiocy to anybody? Just stick to repeating stuff Zahra leaked to you out of closed session.
Even before TA Partners took over for Parkwest, this blog and Fred opposed the development. Stop rewriting history.
Tony wants all the land by the station for himself. He thinks he should decide how Fullerton looks. I don’t remember voting for him
Hi tender Elijah. Too bad your mentor voted to approve this disaster on numerous occasions. I’m not advocating that the development be handed to somebody else.
Improve your reading skills. I am saying staff wants it alive and will try to find a replacement. I want the whole thing dead.
“But that may not work because only Zahra and Charles will keep voting for this disaster.”
Didn’t you read this, or didn’t you make it to the end of the post?
Can they find anybody worse than Johhny and Larry?
Fullerton, being Fullerton.
The original architects of this stupidity are both long gone. So is Whitaker, Zahra to follow.
I sure hope FTFR reminds D3 voters who kept this alive.
So why hasn’t the City sued Larry and Johnny? They are in breach of the Agreement. As I recall the whole thing was supposed to be done by October 2026. That’s nine months from now.
I will address the legal issue, although I don’t have an answer – other than like Florentine’s sidewalk the City staff and lawyer were always working to hide the mess that really happened. And as the post suggests there’s a history in Fullerton of no-fault government.
It’s always “going forward…”
I believe this was introduced by our Chaffee, OC Sup now.
I seem to remember he voted against the original deal in 2018 out the door. It had failed, but reappeared thanks to the dope Quirk-Silva changing his vote after he had “spoken to a few people” – probably Fitzgerald and Domer.
That’s partly correct. Quirk-Silva did change his vote. Chaffee and Fitzgerald voted with him, Whitaker and Sebourn voted no.
Somewhere along the way Whitaker got it into his head that he had to go along with this monster to avoid low-income housing on the site, failing to realize that NOTHING needed to be done.
Marlene is correct. Chafee introduced this monster to us along with Fitzgerald, and it was Chaffees second to last meeting before leaving us for greener pastures.
Levitt left Fullerton to become San Bernardino’s city manager. San Bernardino! One of the dirtiest, decaying, most dangerous shithole cities in the state! Yes, Fullerton is THAT BAD.
He didn’t want to be around if the tax measures fail.
His passive role in the hotel idiocy shouldn’t be underestimated. He had the opportunity to do the right thing: recommend against handing over the deed before the entitlements were complete and the actual project approved. What a failure.
Yeah but does San Berdoo have a Trail to Nowhere?
And the Fullerton Observer has never said a single word about the horrible deal, the massive giveaway, the Larry & Johnny Clown Show. Not a peep.
You’d have though they would have opposed the dodge to avoid the new law about surplus property, but no. That would have made Zahra and Charles look bad in boohoo circles.
Instead they applaud Zero for asking ignorant and pointless questions about the Depot lease.