A Sausalito marina owner has taken over nearby Pelican Harbour marina.<\/p>\n
Cameron Razavi runs Bridgeway Marina. In mid-May, the City Council voted to deny his request to lease the tidelands under the 90-slip Pelican Harbour marina, citing public interest issues.<\/p>\n
That decision, in part prompted by public opposition, including mariners who kept or lived aboard boats at the harbor, prevented the $13.4 million sale from closing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a substantial non-refundable deposit and we have to find a way to move forward with the transaction,\u201d Razavi said. \u201cUnfortunately, it ended up costing us substantially more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Razavi said he is \u201cgeneral partner of the entity that owns it\u201d and the harbormaster, which means he has fiscal responsibilities and liabilities as an investor and oversees its daily operation.<\/p>\n
A July 1 letter from Frank Cialone, an attorney representing Flynn Family Holdings, a San Francisco real estate company that has owned and operated Pelican Harbour for decades, informed city officials.<\/p>\n
It said the tidelands lease that expires in 2040 \u201cdoes not contain any \u2018Change in Control\u2019 term or other provision that would have precluded the former owners of Pelican from transferring their ownership interests, or any portion of those interests, to another person without the City\u2019s consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe elected to inform you so that the City would learn about this promptly and from us,\u201d Cialone said. \u201cMy clients therefore proceeded accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara Flynn of Flynn Family Holdings did not respond to a request to comment.<\/p>\n
Pelican Harbour mariners and residents learned of the transfer on the eve of the July 4 weekend. Razavi posted a notice on the harbor office that he would be the harbormaster effective July 1, and rent payments \u201cwill continue\u201d to the same business as before.<\/p>\n
The facility\u2019s longtime harbormaster and maintenance employee were laid off, according to several boat owners who said maintenance issues needed to be addressed. Most pressing was a water line to boats docked on one pier that apparently had broken over the holiday weekend. Another was bathrooms that need cleaning.<\/p>\n
A letter from Razavi dated July 2 informed slip holders of a \u201cchange of terms of lease,\u201d which raises monthly rents substantially as of Oct. 10.<\/p>\n
A letter to Dane Faber, a lawyer who keeps a vintage wooden trawler at the marina, increased the rent from $1,100 to $2,600. Monthly rates for assigned parking spaces \u201cwill increase from $100 per month to $200 per month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faber said many mariners and residents will not be able to afford the increase and have very few options for relocating their vessels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was clearly done with an objective of thwarting the city\u2019s ruling,\u201d Faber said. \u201cThere was nothing subtle about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be court action on it. I can guarantee it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I have to hire the attorney and file it myself, I will be fully prepared to do that. And unlike so many of my neighbors, I\u2019m financially able to do that, whereas my concern actually may be greater for the many friends I have there who I know are unable to do anything about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skip Kleger, another mariner, said he called Razavi over the holiday weekend to find out what was going on and was told he might want to think about relocating.<\/p>\n
Kleger was among a half-dozen boat owners, including some who live aboard their vessels, who urged the City Council to intervene Tuesday during public open time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am one of a growing group of tenants of Pelican Harbour and I seek the council and the city attorney\u2019s advice on describing the extent to which Razavi has the right to operate within the jurisdiction of Sausalito, specifically Pelican Harbour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn May 14, this council made a clear decision after hearing extensive public testimony and reviewing Mr. Razavi\u2019s public record,\u201d said Rob McCollough, who has lived at the harbor for 26 years. \u201cYour decision is now being deliberately circumvented.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a practical matter, the individual whose assumption of the leasehold this council rejected now appears to be exercising operational control of that marina,\u201d he said. \u201cThis case is no longer simply about one marina. It\u2019s about whether decisions of this elected body concerning public trust property can be avoided through legal technicalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a boat in Pelican Harbour for more than 10 years now,\u201d said Warren Hewerdine, who said his rent increased 174%. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a written adjustment, it\u2019s a financial shock.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn increase of this magnitude fundamentally changes whether ordinary people can afford to keep their boats in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cPelican Harbour deserves stewardship that builds trust, not management that prices out the very people who make the marina the vibrant community it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis end run cannot be tolerated by the city,\u201d said Sandra Bushmaker, a former council member. \u201cPlease, city of Sausalito and council, do something about this renegade who has taken over Pelican Harbour.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can refer this to our city attorney,\u201d Mayor Steven Woodside said. \u201cAnd we can, I guess, project that we can consider this item at our next meeting on the 21st of July. I think that\u2019s all we can do tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Razavi did not attend the meeting, but earlier Tuesday responded to some of the criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking for a win-win for the community in Sausalito \u2014 for the tenants, for myself, for my business partners and for the city,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a great relationship with the city of Sausalito and I\u2019m hoping to continue to provide services. And, you know, all I do is work. And that\u2019s my biggest crime, wanting to continue to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a very successful property right next door,\u201d Razavi said. \u201cWe will continue with the maintenance. We cannot sustain a business if we do not do things the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about unaffordable rent increase for the handful of harbor residents, he said he was unaware of people living on boats at the harbor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what they told me,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if they\u2019re live-aboard, you know, I\u2019ll look at them on an individual basis. As you know, I have a gentleman who pays $300 a month at Bridgeway. I don\u2019t want to condone or encourage this activity, but I have people that pay whenever they can. \u2026 I work with people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sausalito marina owner has taken over nearby Pelican Harbour marina. Cameron Razavi runs Bridgeway Marina. In mid-May,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,181,23,992,100,180,993,266,101,103,102,3624,3625,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-395910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-marin-county","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sausalito","tag-sausalito-city-council","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}