A developer planning to build a large mixed-use project on a former landfill in Commerce was just trying to do the city a “favor” when it agreed to temporarily rent the site to a little-known company capitalizing on truckers desperate to find parking for their rigs during the supply chain gridlock.
Instead, according to court filings, the arrangement backfired, and Comstock Gage found itself in the cross hairs of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, which threatened the developer with more than $5 million in fines for environmental issues.
Ultimately, the county agreed to fine the developer just $126,750, but the ordeal revealed how City Hall, in its rush to help to help an ally profit on surging demand, put others at risk.
At the center of the “favor” sought by the city were businessman Martin Fierro and Commerce City Manager Edgar Cisneros. Fierro runs a company called Fenix Entrepreneur, and his business ventures have repeatedly received support from Cisneros’ public offices over the past decade.
Comstock Gage plans to use the 7.5-acre property along Interstate 5 for a 850-unit mixed-use project, and interviews and emails indicated the developer wasn’t actively seeking to rent out the parcel on a temporary basis until it was approached by a high-level city employee at the end of 2021.
The employee, either Cisneros or Assistant City Manager Vilko Domic, according to Comstock Gage attorney John Allen, asked company executives to rent specifically to Fenix.
Fenix Entrepreneur was then allowed to charge hundreds of truckers to park their rigs on the Gage Avenue property, located next to Veterans Memorial Park. That almost immediately caught the attention of county health department inspectors in January 2022. State regulations require a local enforcement agency, in this case the county Public Health Department, to sign off on any “postclosure uses” of landfills to prevent the potential disturbance of any gases that may have built up beneath the surface.
Less than a month after the operation began, the county said, an inspector observed “approximately 300 cargo containers on trailers throughout the site” and “what appeared to be new soil graded throughout the site, in addition to approximately 70 to 80 yards of gravel-type material stockpiled at the north and northwest areas of the site.” A steady flow of trucks driving in and out the property kicked up dust with no mitigation, according to a county lawsuit filed against Comstock Gage in December.
In April 2022, the county issued a formal cease-and-desist order, prompting Comstock to kick Fenix off the land.
Subsequently, a flurry of finger pointing erupted over who was responsible for the debacle.
Allen, the Comstock Gage attorney, placed part of the blame on Commerce and Fenix, according to an interview and emails obtained by the Southern California News Group under a California Public Records Act request.
“Obviously, Comstock was naive in thinking the city had the authority to authorize them to do it,” Allen said.
In an April 2022 letter to Fierro, Allen warned that Fenix could be on the hook for “expenses which have been and will be incurred” as a result of the county’s action.
“Comstock acted in good faith in agreeing to the request from the City of Commerce to provide Fenix with access to the property under the temporary lease agreement,” Allen wrote at the time. “It did so relying on City and Fenix to ensure the latter’s operations would comply with any and all applicable laws, ordinances, codes and regulations of all regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over the property.”
Allen, reached by phone, did not know whether Comstock still plans to seek reimbursement from Fenix.
Fierro did not respond to emails and hung up when contacted by a reporter.
In an emailed response to questions from the Southern California News Group, Cisneros, the city manager, disagreed that Commerce had any responsibility to ensure the parking was allowed.
“It was the City’s expectation that Landowner would obtain all proper approvals for any activities on the site prior to allowing a short-term use,” Cisneros wrote. “Apparently, Landowner did not secure the required approvals and was cited for a violation by LA County Department of Public Health.”
City Hall heavily involved in deal
Commerce City Hall was so close to the matter that the county initially named it as a defendant in its lawsuit, as inspectors believed Commerce operated the lot.
Cisneros and Domic, at times, were treated as if they were the tenants in correspondence. When Comstock terminated its lease with Fenix, the termination letter was addressed to “Fenix Entrepreneur, Inc. c/o Edgar Cisneros, Vilko Domico, the City of Commerce,” according to emails obtained in a California Public Records Act request.
Fierro wasn’t even included in the email from Comstock’s managing member, Adrian Comstock.
The city manager, who added Fierro to the chain, responded to the termination letter stating that Fenix will “absolutely comply by the clear out date provided and can chime in here if they wish to add anything.” His email noted that he believed Fenix would be willing to undertake the “expense and the work” necessary to obtain temporary approval from the county to continue using the property, if Comstock wanted.
Cisneros had already asked county Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office to attempt to convince the Public Health Department to back down, according to emails. He denies the request was anything out of the ordinary.
“As is often the case with other valued City stakeholders, the City intervened with the relevant public officials in an effort to help find a solution to the problem,” he said.
The city manager also personally handled legal documents on behalf of Fierro, emailing a signed declaration from Fierro to Comstock’s attorney.
Cisneros said Fierro dropped off the declaration at City Hall, as it was closer than Comstock’s offices in West Los Angeles, and the city “scanned and forwarded it as a courtesy in the interest of time.”
Cisneros has helped Fenix before
When Commerce approached Comstock, Fierro already was renting 18.8 acres of city-owned land for $2,700 per month under an agreement solely approved by Cisneros. At the time, a statewide surge in demand for tractor-trailer parking, driven by the pandemic- fueled supply-chain slowdown, had created a gold rush for anyone with access to flat land, with real estate experts estimating that a single acre of parking could generate $30,000 to $50,000 per month.
It’s unclear what experience Fenix had with truck parking before it began renting property from Commerce. The company is listed as a wholesaler in its business filings and has run an open-air market in the parking lot of a shuttered Montebello Unified School school since 2015. Cisneros, while serving on the Montebello Unified school board, made the motion to approve that lease and a subsequent extension in 2017.
City officials recommended Fenix to Comstock as a temporary tenant that would help the city by reducing the number of trucks parked on the street, while simultaneously increasing activity on the site to eliminate an ongoing problem with homeless encampments. Thefts and vandalism on the property, an issue for years, had increased in 2021 and the city saw an opportunity to put the property to use until Comstock was ready to begin construction, according to Cisneros.
The city presented Fenix as the solution to Commerce and Comstock’s problem. Cisneros did not respond to questions asking if Commerce presented any other options to Comstock.
“Fenix was looking for space at the height of the supply chain disruption and the property owner had space available,” Cisneros wrote in an email. “The state encouraged these efforts at the time.”
Fierro, in a signed declaration filed in the county’s case, stated he became involved after city staff had expressed “concern that street parking of unattended commercial truck trailers was creating a serious traffic safety problem in the city.”
Comstock wasn’t planning to lease the property to anyone and agreed to the request as a “favor” to the city, according to Allen. The City Council approved Comstock’s mixed-use development, dubbed the “Modelo” Project, just a few months after Comstock began renting to Fenix, according to meeting minutes and a press release at the time.
“It wasn’t about the money, it was more about the city wanting help,” Allen said in an interview. “The city is our partner, they were good to us and we’ll be good to them.”
Company involved shares familial name
One of the contention points in the county lawsuit revolved around whether Fenix had imported soil to the site.
Emails indicated a company called Anaya’s Trucking delivered 650 tons of recycled asphalt grindings, a “byproduct of a public project” in Montebello, to the Gage Avenue property on behalf of Fenix.
Public records show Cisneros registered a consulting company, VICEVALE, at the same address listed for “Anaya’s Daycare” in Montebello. Birth records appeared to list Cisneros mother’s maiden name as Anaya.
Cisneros denied any relation between him and Eduardo Anaya. He declined to answer questions about his family or his consulting company, which was terminated in March 2022.
Anaya, through a separate limited-liability company, also rented 3.8 acres for truck parking in 2022 for $3,000 per month from the city manager’s office. Commerce paid that company, SKA Investment, $21,000 in January 2021 to remove debris from a Telegraph Road property roughly a month before the city leased the land to Fenix.
In an email, Cisneros said he believed the debris was removed to improve circulation on the property, but stressed that it was effectively a drop in the bucket compared to a 30,000-cubic-yard mountain of debris allegedly removed by Fenix at the company’s sole expense. The city has cited the debris removal as one of the justifications for discounting Fierro’s rent so heavily in early leases.
Commerce, however, has not been able to produce any records verifying how Fenix removed the debris or what the company spent on the project, though satellite imagery does show the property in question was leveled during the time Fierro held the lease.