Abraham M. Lurie (1923 – June 29, 2010) was an American real estate developer who was behind the development of much of Marina del Rey.^[1][2]

Biography

Lurie was born to a Jewish family in Iowa in 1923.^[1] He had two siblings: Dr. William Lurie and Bertha Lurie Friedman.^[1] He graduated with a B.A. in accounting from Ohio State University.^[1] In 1948 he moved to California, with his wife Devera (Feldman) Lurie, where he worked as a certified public accountant and attended the UCLA School of Law.^[1] In 1957, he passed the bar exam.^[1]

Career

He founded Real Property Management which was the single largest developer of the city of Marina del Rey.^[2] In 1953, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors authorized a $2 million loan to fund the construction of the marina and on April 10, 1965 the Marina was completed.^[3] Soon after, the County solicited bids for its development. In 1968, Lurie purchased a 60-year lease from Los Angeles County which gave him the right to build on 20 percent of the land.^[2] He went on to build three hotels, two apartment complexes, 1,000 boat slips, and several shopping centers, offices, restaurants; his holdings also included the last undeveloped piece of waterfront land in Marina del Rey.^[2]

After having cash flow problems^[4] Lurie sold a 49.9% interest in 1989 in his Marina holdings to Saudi billionaire Abdul Aziz Al-Ibrahim (brother of Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim and brother-in-law of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia) and several other unnamed foreign investors, forming Marina International Properties Ltd.^[2] The transaction was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors despite not disclosing the identity of the investors^[2] and included the Marina Beach, Marina International and Marina del Rey hotels, the Admiralty and Islander apartments, Fisherman's Village, Pier 44, Marina Beach Shopping Center and Marina West office complex.^[2] The partnership required additional funds and in late 1990, an agreement was reached for Al-Ibrahim to buy out Lurie's interest but the deal soon fell apart and Al-Ibrahim sued to dissolve the partnership.^[2] This caused $50 million in loans from four separate banks to default.^[2] Al-Ibrahim accused Lurie of fraud, diversion of funds, and the failure of providing adequate financial reporting; and asked the judge to give him control of the Marina holdings.^[2] Lurie counter-sued accusing Al-Ibrahim of withholding funds that were required to be transferred under the partnership putting the solvency of Marina International Properties Ltd. at risk.^[2] Lurie was unsuccessful in finding outside investors who did not want to wade into the middle of a lawsuit with a deep-pocketed and connected Saudi^[5] and petitioned the court to allow him to sell some of the leases without Al-Ibrahim's approval to pay off his bankers.^[2] The court refused and Marina International Properties Ltd filed for bankruptcy.^[2] The lawsuit was ultimately won by Al-Ibrahim who took over control of the partnership^[6] and settled the then $140 million in debt outstanding.

Personal life

In 1947, he married Claire Devera (later Waldman);^[7] they divorced in 1981. In 1983, he married Katherine Lurie.^[8] He had two children: Leslie Beck, Scott Lurie, and two step children, Donald Schneider and Thomas Carlyle. He has 5 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren.^[1] He died on June 29, 2010; services were held at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.^[1]

References