Marina del Rey : County to Collect Past Rent

Los Angeles County will receive $1.3 million retroactively and an additional $300,000 a year in rent from the operator of two 12-story office towers on Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey under a lease amendment approved this week by the County Board of Supervisors.

Marina Airport Building Ltd. will pay the higher rent for the four acres it leases from the county at the corner of Admiralty and Mindanao Way, where it operates the Trizec Towers.

The company, which paid $580,000 in rent to the county in 1989, will pay an additional $300,000 this year and for the 34 years remaining on its lease, said Chris Klinger, deputy director of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors. The $1.3 million in retroactive rent is for the six-year period since renegotiation of the lease began.

Like other marina businesses, Trizec Towers stands on land owned by the county and leased to commercial interests. Sixty-year leases were signed by Marina businesses in the mid-1960s, subject to renegotiation after 20 years, to ensure that the county received fair market rents. Since the mid-1980s, the county has argued during protracted negotiations that it should get more money for public lands, while Marina del Rey businesses have attempted to hold the line against major rent increases.