Christing Kehoe Solves the Old Question: How Do You Make a Small Fortune in Del Mar Real Estate

Thanks to State Senator Christine Kehoe, we now know the secret to that age-old riddle: How do you make a small fortune in Del Mar real estate?
   Start with a large fortune.
   Or 400 acres of the most valuable dirt in the country: The Del Mar Fairgrounds.
   You’ll need to take a few steps in between: First, don’t let anyone know the property is for sale. Then the only offer you will have is from the one group least likely to make it a success; the one group that most wants to shut it down: The Del Mar City Council.
   Next, get a bogus appraisal for $120 million that does not even cover the replacement cost of the buildings at the fairgrounds. Most real estate appraisers would say the true value of the property is closer to $1 billion than $120 million.
   If anyone asks why you would sell it at a reduce rate to the same people who are running it down, pretend they are punking you, instead of the other way around.
   The City of Del Mar recently sold half an acre less than a mile away for $4.4 million to NFL quarterback Carson Palmer. The City publicized the sale for more than a year, inviting bids from all over the world.
   Pretend that never happened.
   Next, offer sweetheart deals on lucrative track leases to the friends of Del Mar city council members. Don’t invite competing offers here either.
   Than make sure the state makes no money. From the sales price of $120 million, deduct $60 million in fairground debt; then deduct $50 million the state is going to finance and you come up with the amount the state will clear on its $1 billion asset: $10 million.
   When you say the State needs to sell the land to reduce its deficit, pray anyone listening has never taken — and passed — a course in Business 101.
   Next, don’t ask and don’t tell who is going to pick up the bills when the City of Del Mar succeeds in its stated intention of turning this regional playground into a hollow shell.
   Then get the sale approved during a special session of the state legislature — the one where legislators like Kehoe are supposed to figure out why the state is running out of money because officials are not managing state assets properly.
   Almost done: If anyone speaks up about the people and problems associated with this give-away, — especially those who say that the Kehoe has never run anything larger than her own election campaigns — just say they are greedy bureaucrats trying to hold on to free parking at the fairgrounds.
   And finally, when people ask what you are going to do about the jobs, the money, the history, the culture, the tradition and the plain old fun at the fairgrounds, when you say you are going to keep them, do everything you can to stop from laughing in their faces.
   Because that will give away the game.