City and Mayor Gloria’s Biggest Contributor Cement Agreement for the Lease and Redevelopment of Sports Arena Area

Principal Brad Termini of Zephyr Development, representing Midway Rising.

On Thursday, Dec. 8, the Union-Tribune announced:

The city of San Diego and development team Midway Rising have cemented an agreement to negotiate the lease and redevelopment of the city’s 48-acre sports arena site in the Midway District.

Monday, the parties executed what’s known as an exclusive negotiation agreement, or ENA. The milestone solidifies the pairing, and starts the clock on a two-year period that requires the developer to produce important material at set dates and not deviate too far from its winning bid.

As today’s Voice of San Diego reported:

Mayor Todd Gloria in September selected and the City Council confirmed a redevelopment proposal from Midway Rising to turn the city owned property underneath and around Pechanga Arena into more than 4,000 homes, a new arena and public space.

Now, the city and Midway Rising have until December of 2024 to agree to a deal that would stipulate lease payments the developer would make to the city for the land, and the components of the project. The developer’s previous bid was made before it could survey and study the property for environmental or infrastructure issues that could complicate the design and substantively change the project.

The framework for negotiations, though, stipulates that the final deal will “substantially conform” to the winning bid, which had to comply with a state law that prioritized low-income housing on public land. The agreement says there needs to be at least 2,000 homes for low-income residents, which was part of the developer’s winning pitch. The agreement also says the city needs to approve any attempt for a member of the development team to transfer their role to another party that wasn’t part of the bidding process.

The Voice did raise something that the Rag has consistently reported on, and that is:

Gloria’s selection of Midway Rising generated significant controversy this fall over a $100,000 donation that Brad Termini, CEO of housing developer Zephyr, Midway Rising’s lead, made to an independent committee supporting his mayoral election in 2020. But the Council approved his selection, and the passage last month of Measure C, removing the Midway area from the city’s 30-foot height limit on new development in the coastal area, allowed the city to take one more step towards a redevelopment.

And we need to shout from the 30-foot high rooftops that Termini & all were the biggest contributors to Gloria’s mayoral campaign.

We need to note that Measure C barely passed. The U-T article mentioned noted the controversy in one sentence:

Members of the public also feared a conflict of interest as Zephyr CEO Brad Termini was a substantial donor to Mayor Todd Gloria’s election campaign.

As the Rag summarized 3 months ago:

“Midway Rising” — the redevelopment group chosen by Mayor Gloria for the Sports Arena area — is owned by one of his largest political contributors.

The group is represented by principal Brad Termini of Zephyr Development. As San Diego’s LaPrensa reported last week:

Termini and his wife, Stefanie, were the two largest contributors to a special campaign committee created solely to support Todd Gloria’s campaign for Mayor in the 2020 election. Brad and Stefanie Termini donated $100,000 to the committee on Oct 30, 2019. Termini is listed as the CEO of Zephyr Investors, LLC, and his wife is listed as a “Homemaker”.

Brad and Stefanie Termini also contributed a total of $4,500 directly to the Todd Gloria for Mayor campaign committee controlled by Gloria during the election cycle.

Not only that, as investigative reporter Alberto Garcia reported: Four of Termini’s relatives in Buffalo, NY, also contributed a total of $4,500 directly to the Todd Gloria for Mayor campaign committee. Termini previously ran his family’s development company in Buffalo and recently launched a $300 million marijuana cultivation operation there.

No other contributions matched the amount of the Termini’s individual contributions. The Termini’s contributions to the special committee, San Diegans from Every Community in Support of Todd Gloria for Mayor 2020, amounted to over one-fifth of the total. The committee raised a total of $484,071 through the June 2020 Primary season.