Alan Casden is not one to back down.
Over the years, the multimillionaire developer has sued a raft of business associates who have displeased him. One business partner -- who happens to be his brother -- says Casden openly mocked him. At a bar mitzvah party for oil tycoon Marvin Davis' grandson, Casden shoved his wife as worried guests looked on, she has said in court papers.
Now, Casden is pushing again -- in this case, a controversial $100-million real estate project through the Los Angeles City Council.
Last week, the council took a preliminary step toward approval of Casden's Palazzo Westwood, a Mediterranean-style apartment and retail complex, to be built on two long-vacant lots near UCLA. Final passage is expected this month.
It wasn't long ago that things looked bleak for the 58-year-old Casden and his latest dream.
In November, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley filed felony charges against a vice president at Casden's development firm, Casden Properties Inc., accusing him of trying to get around campaign finance limits by soliciting donations from friends and relatives of more than a dozen subcontractors and then illegally reimbursing them.
On the day of the indictment, Cooley said that Casden himself was a target of the inquiry, describing him as "a person used to manipulating the system."
More than eight months later, no charges have been filed against Casden, who has denied any wrongdoing. But in January, in the wake of Cooley's comments, City Councilman Jack Weiss vowed to get in the developer's way.
(Over the last four years, Weiss has received contributions totaling at least $34,000 from Casden associates, according to campaign-finance reports. Weiss said he believed that those contributions were appropriate. The district attorney's office has said that Weiss was not a target of its investigation.)
"I'm going to stop Casden," Weiss told a group of angry Westwood property owners, saying that he was concerned about the district's probe, among other things. The audience burst into applause.
Now, though, Weiss has changed his mind about the Palazzo Westwood.
A couple of weeks ago, a City Council planning committee that includes Weiss unanimously approved the project, sending it on to the full council, even though some neighborhood residents still object to certain design aspects of the complex.
