Ventura Port District Secures $8.3-Million Loan

Ventura Port District commissioners voted Thursday night to secure an $8.3-million loan, a move that would enable the financially troubled district to resume collecting rent on Ventura Harbor Village for the first time since 1993.

“This is a very, very important step forward,” district General Manager Ed Wohlenberg said. “There is still lots to go. But this is critical.”

Receiving the rent would bring an additional $230,000 a year to the bankrupt port district, which is carrying a $22-million debt and awaiting judgment on a restructuring plan in bankruptcy court.

The port district filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 1993. In January it filed a business plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Barbara, detailing how it intends to pay off the money it owes.

An important element of the district’s plan was to restructure its debt at Ventura Harbor Village so it could once again begin receiving rents on those properties. This money could then be used to begin paying creditors.

But the existing loan, Wohlenberg explained, precludes payment of any rent until the debt is fully retired. Thursday’s decision takes the port district a step in that direction.

“We are currently receiving no rent from that very important piece of lease-hold property,” Wohlenberg said.

The port district will appear again in bankruptcy court at the end of October.

Wohlenberg said he hopes the progress the district has made will encourage U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robin Riblet to take its entire business plan more seriously.

“That resource coming into the district should help with credibility in other parts of our plan,” Wohlenberg said.

The port district--an independent government agency--went bankrupt when Ventura Group Ventures received a $15.7-million breach-of-contract court judgment against the district in 1991, after the district pulled out of a development project.

The district owes $4 million to the California Department of Boating and Waterways for four loans issued since 1968, and $18 million to other creditors.