Letter to the Editor: Why does Inglewood only sell city owned property to certain developers?

Dear 2UrbanGirls,

Hello, I am writing to you in regard to the proposed development at Prairie and Imperial Highway. This is a large site covering multiple acres that the city of Inglewood is discreetly selling to an unknown developer who will be building hundreds of luxury condos on the site. The project lacks sufficient affordable housing and violated the California Land Surplus Act. The property is being sold with no public offering or notice besides the link attached below.

See documents here.

It has hastily been issued a negative declaration despite the project clearly posing far more harmful impacts on the surrounding residents (traffic, air quality, noise) that would not elicit a neg dec. The developer has little to no track record, and surprisingly enough the project will be sold far below market value. It will have a detrimental impact on the community while contributing little to the city’s fiscal revenue as the city is practically giving it to the developer for free and with no competitive bid process.

Therefore for the reasons discussed above, we strongly believe you find the time to help the city and its community by shedding some light on this less-than-transparent back door deal that is breaking countless laws at the cost of the community’s well-being.

Seeking transparency

**Editors note**

Michael Koper (KP Auto) and William (Bill) Hasan/K.I.G. Properties aka Prairie Station LLC are connected to this transaction.

Hasan has extensive real estate holdings in the city of Hawthorne, most notably, the shuttered Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center.  Hasan works closely with a current Hawthorne councilman’s family providing vehicle storage for the family’s business at the medical center.

Michael Koper has been the preferred recipient, along with Thomas Safran, of various Inglewood properties owned by the city’s former Redevelopment Agency.  Koper received a multi-million dollar settlement when the city sold him property that contained groundwater contamination.

There are six (6) parcels that make up this project site.

A Grant Deed was filed on parcels 4035-018-015 and 4035-018-016 on 4/18/2014 listing KP Properties Inc and Prairie Imperial LLC as owners.  There is currently an Uber/Lyft leasing office located on the property.  The site initially began as a used car lot operated by Repossess Auto Sales, the family-owned business of Hawthorne Councilman Haidar Awad.

Parcel numbers 4035-018-900, 4035-018-901, 4035-018-902, and 4035-018-903 changed hands between the city on May 28, 2014, and March 1, 2016.  These parcels were included in a harshly worded Asset Transfer Review document dated May 2015.  It is unclear why the city continues to transfer the titles multiple times and why only a select few developers are in on these deals.

The bigger question is what does Mayor Butts receive in return?  According to Mayor Butts, a local social justice organization will receive $250,000 to not fight the project in exchange for the inclusion of affordable housing units.

View the Asset Transfer Review document here.

**updated 12/22/2022**

The City adopted another negative declaration on the environmental impact of the project during the Dec. 20 city council meeting which reduced the number of affordable housing units from 60 to 40 units and declared 2.63 acres of the land exempt from the Surplus Land Act.