Report: Building Vanished From Assessor's Rolls

The Prospect South Bay Medical Center in South Redondo Beach was not listed on Los Angeles County's property tax rolls from 2005-2007, according to a report posted online Wednesday.

The $11 million, 47,000-square foot building at 520 N. Prospect Ave., which houses a pharmacy and other medical offices, was among 15 questionable assessments forwarded from the assessor's office to the District Attorney's Office last month following inquiries from the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper reported on its website.

The assessor's office discovered the building's absence from the rolls in 2008 and sent a bill for $330,000 in unpaid taxes to its owner, Prospect South Bay Ltd., according to the Times.

Assessor's office officials were unable to explain to the Times why that property  was not included on the tax roll.

"That's the kind of question I find myself asking a lot," Santos Kreimann, who is running the assessor's office while Assessor John Noguez is on an indefinite leave of absence, told The Times.

The Beach Cities Health District leases the land to Prospect South Bay Ltd.

"We do not know of any reason the property owner should not have gotten tax bills," wrote spokesman Michael Shaw in an email to the Times.

Multiple attempts to contact Prospect South Bay Ltd. and its property managers were unsuccessful.

The District Attorney's Office is investigating allegations that employees of the assessor's office worked hand-in-hand with tax agents representing property owners to low-ball property values in exchange for campaign contributions.

Questionable assessments for such other properties as Mercedes-Benz of South Bay, the Marriott Manhattan Beach resort and the Cheesecake Factory Restaurant in Marina del Rey were also forwarded to the District Attorney's Office, the Times reported.

Editor Nicole Mooradian contributed to this report.