Mayor Kevin Faulconer began meeting with the former owners of the high rise at 101 Ash Street in 2014, a full year before Sempra Energy vacated the property, according to a new cache of emails released by the city under the California Public Records Act.

The communications also show the building’s previous owners, Sandor Shapery and Douglas Manchester, enjoyed access to the mayor and his senior aides, allowing them to market their building to city officials.

“Does the shortened 25-year lease option improve the look of the proposal?” Shapery representative Richard Ledford wrote to Faulconer’s then chief of staff, Stephen Puetz, in July 2014. “May we set that second meeting with the mayor on this issue?”

Taken together, the 80-plus pages of emails show more clearly how the city came to enter what is now considered one of the worst land deals in the history of San Diego governance.

Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2020-10-19/newly-released-emails-show-faulconer-top-aides-overruled-city-real-estate-director-on-ash-street-property