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MONDAY
02.06.17 Volume 16 Issue 73
@smdailypress
WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 CRIME WATCH ..................................PAGE 3 KNOW BEFORE YOU GO ................PAGE 4 GIRL SCOUT COOKIES ..................PAGE 5 MYSTERY REVEALED ....................PAGE 9
@smdailypress
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
Two time cancer survivor climbs to the top
New suit calls NMS a ‘criminal enterprise’
MARINA ANDALON Daily Press Staff Writer
Lila Javan is a cinematographer, Venice resident, two-time cancer survivor, mountain climber and a documentary film maker working to utilize her experience as a way to change lives. Javan was first diagnosed in 2010 with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which is the second most common type of leukemia diagnosed in both adults and children, according to Conquer Cancer Foundation.
Her film about her journey to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania will help raise funds for cancer research. “I was 39 at the time, and was a marathon runner in my early thirty’s, I had always been active,” said Javan. “I was working a lot and now when I look back at it, I remember I could feel my blood running through my body in an unusual kind of way.” Javan was told that sixty percent of her blood was cancerous and she SEE SURVIVOR PAGE 6
City hires new staffer to defend renters’ rights and keep them in their homes BY KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer Kate Cagle
NEW MANAGEMENT: Several disputed properties are temporarily under new management.
BY KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer
In a new case filed against Santa Monica’s biggest developer, NMS Properties, a hedge fund accuses the major Los Angeles developer of acting like a “criminal enterprise” that operates through forgeries, lies, threats and sham lawsuits. The latest lawsuit filed by AEW alleges NMS’s CEO Neil Shekhter’s misdeeds go far beyond submitting forged documents to the court. The lawsuit claims he has sent fake contracts to banks and lenders to confuse the terms of a joint venture agreement (JVA) between the two companies worth more than half a billion dollars. “In order to inflict maximum pressure on Plaintiffs, Defendants also initiated a series of copycat lawsuits involving the same false and misleading allegations regarding the authenticity and validity of the JVA,” reads the complaint filed Jan. 25th in federal court, adding the lawsuits amount to extortion intending to “sue AEW until it breaks.” Back in December, a federal judge found
Shekhter forged contracts, lied and destroyed evidence in a lawsuit to buy out AEW’s interest in nine properties, six of which are in Santa Monica. The judge gave AEW full control of the properties and the hedge fund quickly sold them to a San Francisco developer for about $430 million, much less than market value. Shekhter’s attorneys have appealed the ruling and filed a counter-suit, accusing AEW of its own shady dealings to sell the buildings. In the meantime, NMS had continued to manage the properties and collect rent from tenants. That all changed last week, when a separate judge stepped in and put a third party, Lincoln Property Company in charge of the buildings. Shekhter’s attorney, Skip Miller of Miller Barondess, LLP, says tenants will not notice the change in management. Websites for the specific properties involved now redirect to NMS’s general website. A notice on the door of at least one building alerts tenants to the management shake-up.
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
Experience counts! garylimjap@gmail.com www.garylimjap.com
SEE MANAGEMENT PAGE 6
To some, preserving a neighborhood might mean buildings. To others, it’s the trees. To Ayde Gonzalez, the new Neighborhood Preservation Coordinator for the City of Santa Monica, it’s the people. “The goal of the role is really to keep Santa Monicans housed,” Gonzalez said in an interview at City Hall, “and right now I’m focusing on tenant protection programs that are in place.” It’s a broad job with the possibility of big impact: about 70 percent of the City’s population rents. Right now, the City has no idea how many tenants are considering leaving their buildings – rent controlled or otherwise – because of issues with their landlord. After just three weeks on the job, Gonzalez is still sifting through a complicated web of rules, tenant protections and regulations that spans at least five departments in the City. As she tries to understand what exactly she can do to help renters who feel like they’re being forced from their
homes because of construction or poor management, she’s realizing the complicated picture they face. “Part of my role is to help people by connecting the dots ahead of time so that they’re not spending their time and getting frustrated trying to figure out who to talk to,” Ayde said. A Santa Monica native, Gonzalez has worked with tenants to stay here for the past 20 years. For the last ten, she worked as director of resident services at Community Corp, a non-profit affordable housing provider. When Gonzalez applied for this job, she tried to look for examples from other cities to find out what they’re doing to maintain diversity in their neighborhoods despite escalating rents and a hot real estate market. She realized that the job doesn’t really exist anywhere else. Santa Monica Public Information Officer Constance Farrell says she’s not aware of any other city with a person whose sole job is to oversee tenant protections either. It’s usually a mix of Code Enforcement, Building SEE STAFFER PAGE 7
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