The Strange Tale of Johnny Lu’s Grant Deeds
By now Fullerton City Hall is aware that their partner in a boutique hotel/apartment high-rise on Santa Fe Avenue, TA Westpark LLC, is in trouble. TA Westpark Fullerton., AKA Johnny Lu has defaulted on a massive loan, previously borrowed to complete projects in Irvine.
The fallout from this embarrassment remains unknown, although there are plenty of questions that need to be answered, and sooner rather than later.
One of the questions involves the transfer of the public property ownership at the site to TA Westpark Fullerton, LLC before proper project approval, a desperate, and of course, totally unnecessary act. And the actual documents supporting ownership of the land in question need to be examined, too.
On December 22, 2022 the City sold the land at a huge discount to Lu. Check out the grant deed:
By now Craig Hostert, whose brain-child the boutique hotel was, is scratched out and TA Westpark Fullerton, LLC, a Delaware corporation, is the proud owner of the land and the transfer is signed by a “managing partner” of a whole other entity – “TA Partners.” Looks like Hosteret was bought out or walked away, abandoning his baby.
But, as they say in the infomercial, wait, there’s more. A quick check of the State of Delaware’s corporations roster doesn’t turn up any results for TA Westpark Fullerton, LLC. Hmm.
And here’s something else. A few months later a new grant deed was promulgated and recorded at the County of Orange. Here, the hard to find Delaware corporation deeds the land in question over to TA Westpark Fullerton, LLC, a California corporation.
Something is odd here, and it’s not just the amateur hour handwritten changes on the original deed. Did the City sell this property to a non-existent corporate entity? If so, hasn’t some sort of fraud occurred? Why the shell game here, and could the original deed be considered invalid in retrospect?
We could ask these question of Dick Jones of the “I Can’t Believe It’s a Law Firm” law firm, because I doubt the City Council will make inquiries of their ace lawyer. Getting an honest answer from ol’ marble mouth? A rare and precious jewel.
Some might think this entire fiasco is going to get worse before it gets better. I’m not sure how that’s possible.
Time to pull the plug. The deal’s dead. Everything’s over except the exorbitant legal fees.
I would like to know more about Hostert’s real position. If he is out, that constitutes a re-assignment, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that mean the City knew?
I guess nobody cares about that since the monster has metastasized so horribly over the years.
Ask Jesus Silva why he changed his vote two weeks later from wanting to do a “Request for Proposals”, aka; RFP, to an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement, aka; ENA. on two prime acres acres of land in downtown Fullerton with a guy, Craig Hostert, who had ZERO qualifications developing hotels.
Hogarugius probably has the answer. That guy, John, is so smart.
That’s a good question. And why did Douggie Chaffee change his vote at the end of 2018 to keep this cancer spreading?
I think the answer is the same to both: Fitzgerald promising big buck from Pringle fundraising events. Chaffee got his, and Fitzgerald was even pitching his thieving wife Paulette for County School Board of Education – to her fellow Republican womenfolk.
Would be good to look at the 460 forms or whatever form is used to report campaign contributions to see if any members of this motley cast of characters were making it rain campaign dollars for Silva and Chaffee.
Has anyone submitted a PRA request to see a copy of the actual ENA and purchase and sale agreement for the property? I’m fairly certain the agreement wouldn’t be able to be reassigned without the city’s knowledge and consent. If the city knew and consented, did it perform any due diligence on who the assignee is?
The FBI is investigating Anaheim for corruption, Too bad they can’t investigate for sheer incompetence. Fullerton would be amongst the top ones.
I’m looking forward to hearing Zhara, Shana & Whitaker’s game plan after railroading this through. I hope it’s an attempt to buy back the property.
Probably a handwriting analyst looking scribble would have revealed not to do business with Johnny Lu.
No, the fact that Zahra and Charles were backing this guy revealed not to do business with Johnny Lu.