What do Costco members most love about shopping at the warehouse store? The bulk deals on everything, including items they didn’t even realize they needed? The high quality of goods? Cheap gas for the family car? Or is it the hot dog and soda combo meal that’s held its buck-50 price for more than 40 years?
What do cities find enticing about the idea of seeing a Costco open within their boundaries? It’s the potential for millions of dollars annually in sales tax revenue, baby. Millions.
So, when the city of Brea was approached with a proposal to bring a Costco to town by Dwight Manley, a real estate investor who has cut a wide swath in his hometown for years, officials’ ears perked up.
Manley is acquiring a 34-acre parcel in Brea that he believes a portion of which would be the perfect site for the big box warehouse club and he’s betting he can wrangle a deal within a year to make that happen.
All he asked for in exchange was a sales tax subsidy from the city, according to reporting on a recent meeting of the Brea City Council by my colleague Gabriel San Román.
The terms of the agreement, which the council ultimately approved on a split vote, “will rebate Manley 100% of the sales tax revenue generated by a future Costco in the first two years alone. Over the course of the 50-year agreement, the city would collect 42.5% of the sales tax,” San Román reports.
Locals turned out for the council meeting to oppose such a deal. One of them was David Cain, a retired director of finance for the city of Fountain Valley. He had some pointed comments to make, including calling the rebate agreement “the worst sales sharing agreement” he had ever seen in his career.
“It takes 30 years for the city to get a 50-50 share on this agreement,” Cain told the council. “The other issue that’s significant is that you’re giving away future money that you don’t even have yet. If the city were to go after an additional transaction sales tax measure in the future — we have not done that here — but let’s assume we go after that additional 1%, this agreement says the developer gets 40 cents on the dollar of that additional money. That shouldn’t be in that agreement in any way, shape or form.”
Manley noted during the discussion that the property’s purchase price exceeds $100 million, with the full price set to be disclosed in January, and that he’s the one assuming all the risk involved if he cannot land a Costco for the city by the end of 2026.
When the vote was taken, a three-person majority carried the day, with one councilmember, Christine Marick, dissenting and another absent.
Summing up his reason for voting in favor of the agreement, Councilmember Steve Vargas said, simply enough, that the city needs sales tax money.
“Of course, I’d like 100% [of the sales tax revenue], but with all of these large corporations going out…even getting a 40% split is better than nothing,” Vargas said.
And so, the clock is ticking for Manley to deliver the goods.
MORE NEWS 
An exposed flood channel bifurcates the Coyote Village condo complex in La Habra in this “before” photo.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
• Twice, following periods of heavy rain, the greenbelt at Coyote Village condo complex in La Habra took major hits when the land collapsed, exposing an old flood channel —first in 2019 and again in 2023.
After about seven years of living with the chasm, residents celebrated with elected officials the completion of a new greenbelt last week, a project that carried about an $8.5-million price tag. Here’s how it looks today:
The rebuilt greenbelt with a unity bridge at the Coyote Village condo complex in La Habra on Dec. 17.
(James Carbone)
• The test positivity rate for the flu is rising in Orange County and emergency room visits and hospitalizations are spiking, according to this report in the L.A. Times. Of special concern to officials is how hard a new strain this year will affect children. Here’s a link to OC Health Care Agency page where you can find more information.
• Edison High held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning for an expansion to its campus Innovation Lab, where it will house endangered steelhead trout through a partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
• Irvine-based Ventura Foods recently recalled 3,556 cases of various kinds of salad dressing that could be contaminated by “black plastic planting material” in the granulated onion used in the products, The Times reports.
CRIME
• A man was arrested after six-hour standoff near Marina High in Huntington Beach
• A Brea Olinda Unified School District board member who works at Santa Ana College was arrested Thursday on suspicion of possession of child pornography and sexually charged messages to a child, City News Service reported.
SPORTS 
Huntington Beach surfer Bailey Turner, shows her medals after winning the 16 and under girls’ division over 100 other competitors in the ISA World Junior Surf Championships in Peru over the weekend of Dec. 13-14.
(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
• Bailey Turner, 16, of Huntington Beach won a gold medal at ISA World Junior Surfing Championships, which concluded Dec. 14 in Punta Rocas, Peru.
• In Times columnist Eric Sondheimer’s wrap Monday of the high school football season, “Celebrating the Southland’s top high school football players,” Orange County athletes and a coach swept the top honors.
• Should Angels fans give up and turn their loyalties to the Dodgers? Times columnist Bill Shaikin has thoughts about that.
OBITUARY 
New Zealand-born American journalist Peter Arnett, center, is flanked by Vietnamese-born American photographer Nick Ut, left, and photographer David Hume Kennerly in this 2022 file photo as the three attended a 2022 event in Garden Grove to mark the 50th anniversary of Ut’s 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his portfolio of photographs of the Vietnam War. Arnett died last week at the age of 91.
(File Photo / Daily Pilot)
• Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Peter Arnett, who had lived in Fountain Valley since 2014, died in Newport Beach last week. He was 91. “He was like a brother,” retired AP photographer Nick Ut, who covered combat in Vietnam with Arnett and remained his friend for decades, told The Times. “His death will leave a big hole in my life.”
LIFE & LEISURE 
Scott Friedland describes the Minarik “Inferno” guitar at the Rocket Guitar Emporium showroom in Huntington Beach.
(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
• Rocket Guitar Emporium in Huntington Beach was featured in this story published over the weekend in the Daily Pilot & TimesOC, written by my colleague Matt Szabo. Scott Friedland co-owns the by-appointment-only business with former Guitar Center CEO Ron Japinga.
• A new entertainment center has opened at Irvine Spectrum called Holey Moley and Hijinx Hotel. It is not, as our feature contributor Jessica Peralta writes, a real hotel. So, if you go, do not pack a suitcase. Holey Moley is a miniature golf course and Hijinx Hotel offers a host of amusing activities in 15 “challenge” rooms.
• Pageant of the Masters has issued its annual casting call for next summer’s production, which will be themed “The Greatest of All Time.” Tryouts are planned for Jan. 9-11, with hours from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday and from 1 to 4 p.m. on the weekend days.
CALENDAR 
Santa, Mrs. Claus and Holly the elf are captured by pirates.
(Jessica Peralta)
• Trampoline jumping, sword fights and even a Santa vs. pirate fight sequence are all part of the holiday fun at Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park, a seasonal show that continues through Dec. 31.
• “California Biennial 2025: Desperate, Scared, But Social” is on view at the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art through Jan. 4. For more details, check out this article by TimesOC’s Sarah Mosqueda.
• Bowers Museum’s latest exhibition, “Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution” is open through April 5. It traces the story of Indian chintz and how the textile is considered the first worldwide fashion trend.
KEEP IN TOUCH
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