HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplemental Information - Correspondence with Seal Beach Communications FoundationsP
December 9, 2000
Dear Honorable Mayor and Seal Beach City Council Members,
As the end of the year approaches, we are extremely concerned about the solution for
our future location. We understand that the city's offer to California Historic Properties
was rejected ,which of course, makes the situation for both the SBCCF and the city's
second floor offices at 201 8'° street much more critical. We have been told by
California Historic Properties that unless something is negotiated, come Jan 1", the
second floor will be accessible to both of us on a limited basis to remove items only.
Our lease downstairs for the PEG facilities office and all of our free areas will expire at
the end of February. If there is no access to the studio, then we will not be renewing
the lease for the downstairs and we will immediately be preparing to move to another
location. The problem, which has always been the problem, is that there is no City
location to move to and no extra money was ever provided to the SBCCF to pay large
rent payments for many years. This was the reason for the building in the Bixby Old
Ranch Town Center. It only works if the building is built. The proposal of buying the
lease for 201 8'^ street, is again a great idea and is saving lots of money in the expense
of moving, but it only works if the city buys the lease or pays the rent.
There are many things that need to be considered for us to relocate, such as
1. Cost per sq. footage
2. Man power and hours to disassemble all equipment
3. Packing up of the facility
4. Actual physical move to another location
S. Man power and hours to reassemble all of the equipment
6. Cost for engineer to synchronize the systems
7. Weeks of downtime
8. Cable company has to run cables and hook-up to new facility
9. We have specific electrical and air-conditioned requirements along with
the proper ceiling height and sq. footage necessary for the entre facility.
There is commercial space available in the Leisure World Shopping Center. It is 4400
sq. ft for $11,572 per month ($2.38 rent per sq. ft. plus 25 cents CAM). We are aware
that California Historic Properties is currently receiving $7000 a month for the second
floor. Remember that this is a month to month rate, A lease would lower the rate.
The city of Seal Beach and SBTV-3 are blessed with many volunteer producers. Most of
them however have full-time jobs and are available on a limited basis in the evening and
on weekends. We will be using them as much as we can for packing up the facility and
unpacking at the new location.
We are working on an estimate for the actual physical move. We expect it to take 2 —3
days and we will hire professional movers. They will need to come to the facility to see
what type of equipment they will be handling. We expect it to be very expensive.
The chief engineer for the SBCCF currently donates his time to the SBCCF. There will be
a fee for a move like this for him to synchronize all of the systems, once they are
assembled and running. He must oversee the disassembling and reassembling process.
Depending upon when the trade finally happens, either Comcast or Adelphia will need to
be contacted to run the proper cabling requirements to the new facility. There should
not be a charge for this since the cable company has requirements in the current
contract of linking the city facilities. The cable company actually doing this is another
story -
The studio has specific electrical requirements that most likely will not be adequate at
any other location. We will need to determine what exists and what will be necessary at
the new location and then we will be able to determine how much that will cost.
The studio also requires a 15 or 16 foot ceiling for the lighting grid. Again, once the
new location is determined, we would be able to determine what exists and what will be
necessary and how much it will cost.
The facility currently occupies about 2800 sq. feet and is an extremely cramped facility.
We have reached our capacity and will need more room.
We are estimating that it could take 6 — 8 weeks to disassemble the equipment and then
again, 6 — 8 weeks to reassemble it. This is roughly 3 1/2 to 4 months. Although we
have many volunteer producers, only a handful of them are technically qualified.
Therefore, their abilities will be utilized in the moving efforts and we unfortunately will
be unable to cover any productions we would normally cover, during this time period.
This includes several productions scheduled at McGaugh School, the Miss Seal Beach
Pageant, all studio and field productions and all government meetings.
Some of these items we had begun to research already, in anticipation of the move to
the Bixby center. We were hoping to develop a plan that would allow some parts of the
move to happen gradually over a period of time thereby giving us a much shorter
downtime period. With a more abrupt move like this, that will not be possible.
We appreciate the efforts the city is making towards the future location and because we
have specific needs that the city may not be familiar with, we would like to be included
in any suggestions and/or alternatives the city may discover. It is important that we
know your intentions regarding 201 81h Street right away so that decisions can be made
immediately.
Sincerely,
Seal Beach Cable Communications Foundation