A Centre City Development Corp. panel has picked Ernst & Young as the preferred company to reevaluate the financial analysis underlying a proposal to build a new City Hall.
CCDC delayed the proposed redevelopment project in August after identifying a potential conflict of interest in the financial analysis that justifies the entire effort.
Mike McShea, a Jones Lang LaSalle analyst who vetted the project’s financial assumptions for CCDC, took a job with one of the companies that had been involved in the effort to create a new City Hall.
CCDC used Jones Lang LaSalle as its financial consultant, tasking the company with analyzing proposals from two different developers who wanted to rebuild City Hall and the Civic Center Complex. McShea led the $675,000 analysis for Jones Lang LaSalle.
CCDC officials said McShea began talking with CB Richard Ellis about a position there in June and accepted a job with the company in early August. CB Richard Ellis was included as the property manager for the proposal by Portland-based developer Gerding Edlen, which fared the best in the financial analysis.
CB Richard Ellis has since been removed from the project proposal.
Ernst & Young is expected to take eight weeks to conduct its review. Jones Lang LaSalle will reimburse CCDC for those costs up to $100,000, spokesman Derek Danziger said. Ernst & Young will receive a $130,000 contract, though Danziger said the review is not expected to cost more than the reimbursable $100,000.
CCDC’s board does not need to approve the contract. The selection panel included Greg Stein, San Diego County Taxpayers Association board member; Carl DeMaio, Councilmember-elect; Mary Lewis, the city’s chief financial officer; Kim Kilkenny, a CCDC board member; and Barbara Kaiser, a CCDC vice president.