60-ACRE VACANCY MAY END CITY PLAN WOULD DEAL WITH CONSTRUCTION HURDLE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Palmdale officials are working on a plan to free up nearly 60 vacant acres in the Trade and Commerce Center that are being blocked from development by almost $40 million in delinquent tax and assessment liens.

Palmdale officials are proposing an agreement with S & Y Capital Group, a Los Angeles company, to pay $1 million to a development company holding a promissory note on the land. The plan calls for working with Los Angeles County officials to reduce delinquent property tax charges against the property.

``We want to free the property up,'' said Mayor Jim Ledford. ``There is a lot of interest in development of that property.''

The aim is to reduce the cost of the land to a potential developer or company from $15.42 per square foot to somewhere between $4 and $5 per square foot.

The property is located in an area generally bounded by avenues P-4 and P-8, Trade Center Drive and the Antelope Valley Freeway. The land is north of the auto mall and east of the Palmdale Marketplace.

The area is visible from the freeway and is passed by many vehicles a day, making it prime real estate, city officials said.

``We think it'll get snapped up pretty quickly,'' said Danny Roberts, Palmdale's assistant executive director of redevelopment.

The delinquent tax and assessment issue revolves around bonds sold in 1989 and 1990 to finance $63.9 million worth of improvements such as roads, utilities, storm drains and landscaping in the area.

The improvements were aimed at speeding up development, but they were completed just before a real estate slump in the Antelope Valley.

Most of the land remains vacant more than 10 years later.

The bonds were secured by land in the assessment districts. In the mid- 1990s, bond payments began to be missed, and foreclosure proceedings began on dozens of parcels. Foreclosure sales have been unsuccessful because of the debt owed on the properties.

Under the plan, the city and S & Y Capital Group, a subsidiary of the underwriter of the Trade and Commerce Center bonds, would jointly pay $1 million to a partnership called the Antelope Valley Project, holder of a promissory note secured by a deed of trust on the site. The Antelope Valley Project's principals include David Bushnell, founder of Bushnell Binoculars.

The city's and company's expenses would be reimbursable from the sale of the property.

The agreement also calls for the city and the company to jointly pay off $7,200 in delinquent county taxes on an additional 3.69 acres in the area that serves as a detention basin.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com