Quarter million dollars lost

With the City of Desert Hot Springs pinching pennies, laying off employees and cutting back every way it can to balance the budget, over $250,000 remains stuck in a failed scheme to renovate a local spa. It now appears the city has no guarantee to get the money back.

Three years ago former hotel manager Brian Bescoby approached the city to get city money with the promise of $2 million more backing up his plan to renovate the 33 room Flamingo Hotel on Pierson Boulevard.

The money from the redevelopment agency was supposed to supplement money Bescoby claimed to have from investors.

The city took Bescoby for his word without any backup of bonds or even investigating with a simple phone call confirming his “backing.” A person claiming to be Bescoby’s investor, who did not want to be named, said for this article he never gave Bescoby or the city any guarantee.

The city council acting as the redevelopment agency voted to fork over $250,000 bankrolling Bescoby’s construction ambitions. That’s a lot of money to someone lacking hotel construction experience.

Once Bescoby got his hands on the money he went right to work without bothering with building permits. Extensive renovations moved walls and windows and involved massive plumbing and electrical work. Bescoby boasted of “building with his imagination” instead of using a set of plans the project required.

During construction a fire erupted from demolition as workers were removing a gigantic steel superstructure cluttering the main patio. That mishap led to the first of two redtag stop-work orders issued by city code enforcement officers. Stop work notices did nothing to slow down work. Dozens of Spanish speaking tradesmen labored as carpenters, lathers, glaziers and drywall installers. City documents required the project to pay prevailing wage but there was no method to validate that stipulation other than Bescoby’s say so.

“It’s my dream to own a magnificent property like this,” said Bescoby in our story of October 3, 2008 with Bescoby boasting of on opening just after the first of the year. Instead, construction slowed and then came to a sudden halt. Two years have passed with no work observed on the once pink hotel now unfinished cement gray.

On October 9, 2010, city manager Rick Daniels replied to our information request saying the city will get its money back when the property is sold. “We feel confident the city is not going to lose money on this,” Daniels said explaining the city has a second trust deed to secure their investment.

Unfortunately, this paper’s investigation of title and court documents over the last year and a half show no lien secured by the city and no reference to the city on the title. “This means Bescoby’s city money was nothing more than an unsecured personal loan,” said a local bank manager.

Daniels admitted the city has not heard from Bescoby for some time. Phone numbers for Bescoby are disconnected. Daniels recently wrote it is time for the city to do something. What that means is not exactly clear. Still, not everyone cares about trying to solve this puzzle – with some preferring facts remain secret.

“Writing about this does not help the city,” said Judy Bowman, President of the Hoteliers Association, reaffirming the same comments made last January. “You should only be writing positive things to help tourism. I don’t think this is something important and I have no comment about how the city spends its money.”

A quarter million dollars would fund more than two police officers for one year.

The property, a classic mid-century modern style hotel, enjoys spectacular views of the city of Palm Springs vista beneath Mount San Jacinto and sits atop a true hot water well, piping in at 110 degrees, for the seven soaking pools spread across an inner courtyard. Nearly three dozen hotel rooms, massage therapy rooms, a sauna, a 40 seat restaurant, and a16 seat conference room adds to the value that remains unrealized.

In addition to the Flamingo, the halfway remodeled 97 room Sanctuary Hotel has been abandoned and up for sale since January 2009. Other city hotels and spas report a good year of business despite the economy.

Desert Hot Springs offers guests a choice of a couple fine large hotels or many intimate and unique vacation spas featuring the benefits of naturally occurring mineral waters, many with respectable prices and special services catering to health and wellness. Quite a few have been written up in national and international publications and have won many prestigious awards and accolades in the last few years.

For more stories like this, visit the Desert Valley Star’s website at www.desertvalleystar.com

Founder and publisher of and one of the writers for the Desert Star Weekly, the desert’s only alternative independent weekly newspaper. Dean wrote, published and sold ads for his first independent newspapers in 1969 in high school and has been writing ever since. Art Kunkin, then publisher of the LA Free Press and now of Joshua Tree, was then and remains now his inspiration and a weekly columnist in the Star. While Dean’s “cactus thorns” are sharp and pointed, he has a passion for art, music, good food and healthy living. see DesertStarWeekly.com for more.

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5. Still No Signs – After $20 million in Redevelopment Spent

Tags: brian bescoby, desert hot springs, flamingo hotel, hoteliers association, judy bowman, rick daniels