Committees for and against Measure S spent $3M in 2016

Crescent Heights, the Miami-based developer of the Hollywood Palladium Towers project, contributed the most money to the campaign against Measure S, according to finance reports filed late Friday with L.A.’s ethics commission.

The LLC Crescent Heights Palladium contributed $500,000 during the fourth quarter and just over $1 million for all of 2016 to the committee opposing the development-curbing measure. That’s the lion’s share of the $610,000 and $1.54 million in monetary contributions the Coalition to Protect LA Neighborhoods and Jobs committee received during those respective time periods, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

The Palladium project’s main opponent, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which is headquartered next door to the two proposed 28-story towers, bankrolled the drive to place the initiative on the ballot, and has been the biggest donor on either side of the measure.The nonprofit foundation contributed the majority of the $1.95 million the lobbyist group for the measure, the Coalition to Preserve LA, received in 2016, including monetary and non-monetary contributions. The AHF contributed a total of $510,000 during the fourth quarter of 2016 alone. The organization has been a prolific donor to myriad political causes, contributing $23 million to two statewide ballot measures last fall.

The March 7 ballot initiative also known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative would place a two-year moratorium on new developments requiring zoning changes.

Opponents’ fundraising is expected to ramp up in the next few weeks as the election nears, with many developers and business groups contributing. — Gabrielle Paluch [LABJ]