The city of Lompoc ended a plan to build a $460 million space-themed multiplex on city-owned land.
Lompoc’s City Council members voted to end the exclusive negotiating contract with Eva Blaisdell and the California Space Center (CSC) at their Nov. 17 meeting.
The one-year contract, which was signed between Blaisdell and the city in June, gave her exclusive rights to draft a plan to develop a space-themed educational center and theme park on a plot of land near Allan Hancock College’s Lompoc Valley Center.
The project would have included a rocket launch viewing facility, a space museum, education center, a research park, a holographic theater, hotel, restaurants, a health club, retail space, and other amenities.
With the construction of the CSC, Blaisdell promised several thousand jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Lompoc, which saw the departure of several government contractors following the ending of NASA’s space shuttle program in 2011.
The city issued a notice of default (NOD) to Blaisdell in September after she had not provided any details on how the project would be funded. They gave her a deadline of Oct. 31 to come up with details.
Blaisdell said she had attracted interest from several companies including Sony, IMAX, Apple, and even the University of Southern California.
At the Nov. 17 meeting, City Council members grilled Blaisdell on the details they sought, which were outlined in 14 bullet points.
Blaisdell said the NOD had “damaged” interest in the project and that she had to spend most of her time managing the situation with investors. She criticized the council for how the NOD was publicly issued and the action subsequently picked up by the news media.
She asked the city to remove the NOD.
“I’m just asking for the removal of the notice of default so I can show up with dignity in front of people and say, ‘Yes, I cured the problem,’” Blaisdell said. “You are not making the decision to give me anything, you are just making the decision to allow me to continue spending money and work with the big corporations.”
Blaisdell said she sent invitations to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Yahoo! chief financial officer. She added that she attracted Goldman Sachs for “something they are interested in considering” and received acceptance from a “very prominent guy who’s inviting lots of investors.”
For the most part, members of the public spoke in favor of continuing negotiations with the CSC. However, Blaisdell was hard pressed to come up with the information the City Council members were seeking.
In addition to showing how the company was going to raise the capital needed for the project, Councilmember Victor Vega asked Blaisdell to provide information that the company is authorized to do work in California.
It’s not authorized to do business in the state, because the company is not operational yet, Blaisdell said, but added that it will be when she agrees to the terms of the contract with investors.
Without that information, the City Council decided to terminate the contract with Blaisdell.
“She has no investors, she has no contracts, and she has no plans,” Lompoc City Administrator Patrick Wiemiller said. “It’s held only in her mind. I think based upon that, the elementary information needs that we have are still unfulfilled.”
Had Blaisdell provided what the city wanted, the eventual result of the contract would have been to transfer ownership of the land to Blaisdell, Wiemiller told the Sun.
He added that there are currently no formal plans from other companies to develop the property, although there were some inquiries.