All It Takes Is Money

Marcus & Millichap, the investment property brokerage firm, is playing host to a buyers symposium in La Jolla this morning. The topic: Real estate investment opportunities in the “post-Packwood” days. That’s the new jargon for the proposed tax-reform bill.

The symposiums are only open to a select few: To get in, investors must have $500,000 in cash or equity. “You can’t just walk in off the street,” according to company spokesman Mark Stechbart, who said visitors may be asked for current financial statements if they’re unknown to the firm or unable to easily prove their net worth.

D.A. Drops Fitzsimons Case

The district attorney has officially closed its investigation of Kenny Fitzsimons, the clean-cut, wide-smiling Fletcher Hills native who convinced about 70 of his friends and relatives to invest at least $4 million. He hasn’t been seen since late 1984.

Investigators dropped the case because they had “nothing to go on,” according to Tony Sampson, chief of the fraud division. Fitzsimons told investors, “Give me the money and we’ll get rich,” Sampson said.

Several of Fitzsimons’ investors claimed that they were told they had invested in real estate. But Sampson said he was unable to find “any representations . . . that I could show were false. “If someone gives you a note and doesn’t pay, it’s a civil matter.”

Christiana Complications Thicken

Christiana Cos., the San Diego-based company with a recent ownership trail more complicated than a set of Yosemite hiking switchbacks, got a bit more complicated last week as the savings and loan that controls 39% of Christiana’s stock was declared insolvent and was shut Friday by federal regulators.

Western Savings Assn., of Dallas, reopened Monday as Western Federal Savings & Loan Assn. after the Federal Home Loan Bank Board closed its 18 branches Friday. Jarrett E. Woods Jr. was Western Savings chairman and chief executive and took over as Christiana’s chairman and chief executive when Western acquired 39% of Christiana’s stock.

“At this point in time” the takeover doesn’t mean anything, Martin Fenton, a former Christiana president and now a consultant to the company, told Times staff writer Greg Johnson on Monday.

Federal regulators, meanwhile, are trying to sort out exactly who owned the Christiana stock--Western Savings, its parent Western Capital, or an affiliate. Western acquired its Christiana interest last year when it foreclosed on a loan to Summit Savings & Loan, another Texas thrift that has since been taken over by regulators.

The complicated ownership question may be unraveled Wednesday, when Christiana is expected to explain the changes. But getting information from the once-growing San Diego real estate company has been difficult since the ownership moved out of the state. And That’s The Way It Is

Veteran radio newsman Reid Carroll took some heat last week when he reported on a City Council committee hearing into the emotionally charged issue of who’ll get to use the Conference Building in Balboa Park. On one side are square dancers, cloggers, table-tennis players, disabled floor-hockey athletes and Special Olympics participants, on the other is a group that wants to turn the facility into a car museum.

Carroll was once the president of the car museum group and, until March, was on its board of directors. His easily recognizable voice can be heard on the group’s promotional slide show.

Carroll had managed to keep his journalistic and personal worlds separate, until last week when he reported on radio station KFMB-AM the results of the committee meeting, where the car museum backers ran into some new obstacles.

“There’s no conflict whatsoever,” Carroll defended last week. “The story I did had balance. I don’t feel I’m saying too much for either side. (After) 40 years of journalism, I can be fair.”

On a personal level, however, Carroll admits to being “damn mad” at what he sees as a “whole series of perceptions (that) . . . are so wrong” concerning the car museum backers.

KFMB’s news director, Cliff Alpert, said he “figured we might get some flak” over Carroll’s coverage. He received some calls from listeners who complained that Carroll’s report was inaccurate and slanted.

“In the future, maybe I’ll just keep him off the air on the story” to avoid the appearance of a conflict, Alpert said.