Thumbnail photo: Bayside RV Park is one of two RV parks at the Crescent City Harbor that developer Daniel Dahan and his company BSD Property Management will revitalize and manage. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
Daniel Dahan’s relationship with local engineer Lee Tromble and his company’s management of White Rock Resort in Smith River stood him in good stead with the Crescent City Harbor District Board.
Despite skepticism from the public, who urged them to go slow, warning that the Long Beach-based developer has a history of judgments against him, commissioners unanimously selected his firm, BSD Property Management, to revitalize and operate Bayside RV Park and Redwood Harbor Village RV Park.
The Board submitted their votes on paper to their clerk Kristina Hanks on Tuesday. Hanks then read their decision into the record.
“The general consensus is that Mr. Dahan has good experience here with White Rock Resort and the most money behind him to complete the project,” CCHD Board President Rick Shepherd told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. “That was the game changer.”
The Board’s decision concluded negotiations that began with Scott Lawhon and Sean McGraw, of San Juan Capistrano-based Crescent City Holdings LLC about 18 months ago. Though Lawhon and McGraw went before the Board in July 2025 with a proposal, commissioners decided about a month later to seek other proposals. According to CCHD Vice Chairman John Evans, that RFP process proved to be extremely competitive and spurred robust discussion.
“Dahan has a proven track record of success,” Evans said. “We would be buying a brand. White Rock is a gorgeous resort.”
In addition to hearing from both developers a final time, commissioners also heard from their colleague Annie Nehmer and fiscal officer Sandy Moreno about the possibility of operating the RV parks themselves.
Nehmer brought up the California Coastal Conservancy’s Explore the Coast Grant, which Crescent City used to install two ADA accessible cabins and refurbish an apartment at Lighthouse Cove RV Park.
Nehmer said the Crescent City Harbor District could apply for $1 million to $3 million in Coastal Conservancy grant dollars to renovate the parks.
“Those parks are highly successful, which is why there are two candidates here today,” she said. “It is a cash cow out there if it’s managed correctly. We need to create that management.”
According to Nehmer, both RV parks have 10% occupancy currently. Thirty-five percent occupancy should be sustainable, she argued.
Nehmer also said that the Crescent City Harbor District currently has a budget deficit of $550,000. She said the Harbor District can generate enough to break-even by running the RV parks itself.
However, Moreno said that one way the Crescent City Harbor will continue to function is by providing services to tourists.
“If we bring in a property manager and a good camp host … everything we do only goes up. We can’t get any worse,” she said, adding that the cost to visitors she was basing that on was $35 per space. “The difference is we need a boardwalk.”
Having the ability to provide tourist amenities year-round is the only way the harbor will succeed, Moreno argued.
“What these two people bring to us, the boardwalk will come,” she said, pointing to Lawhon and McGraw. “(Dahan) he’s got money, and he can probably do the Boardwalk better.”
Dahan, who is the managing director for BSD Property Management, told commissioners that his firm is committing between $5 million to $8 million to revitalizing both RV parks. He plans to take advantage of Crescent City’s proximity to the ocean and the mountains and turn Bayside and Redwood Harbor village into a year-round coastal destination.
BSD’s “hybrid park model” proposal will accommodate both short-term and long-term guests and will offer private ocean-facing spots, landscaped communal zones, artisanal fire pit lounges, pet zones, native plant landscaping and live music.
To give the public and harbor commissioners a taste of what his firm can do, Dahan pointed to BSD’s management of White Rock Resort, which it purchased in 2022. BSD upgraded the electronic pedestals in each of the resort’s 27 units, upgraded the heating units and replaced the roof on several buildings.
“We went from 1,800 guests in 2022 to 4,100 guests this past year,” he said.
BSD purchased two other resort properties in the Smith River area, which will be coming online in June and September, Dahan said.
However, despite operating resorts successfully, BSD has never operated an RV park. As a result, Dahan said, BSD is working with Campground Consulting Group, the largest consulting firm for RV parks.
BSD Property Management’s lease of Redwood Harbor Village and Bayside RV Parks, about 4.5 acres each, will start May 1. The property management company is also leasing a 0.9 acre overflow lot across the street from Redwood Harbor Village starting May 1.
Under the terms of the commercial lease the company negotiated with the Harbor District on Tuesday, BSD will pay a monthly minimum rent of $7,500 for Redwood Harbor Village and $5,000 for Bayside RV Park.
The tenant will also pay a monthly minimum rent of $4,150 for the overflow lot provided the company puts the parcel to “active revenue-generating use within 30 months. If they’re not able to do so, the Crescent City Harbor District has the right to terminate the lease upon written notice to BSD.
The tenant will also pay a monthly percentage rate equal to 8% of their gross revenues, which includes rents, license fees, commissions and sales from vendors and concessionaires.
During one of several public comment periods on Tuesday, frequent CCHD critic Linda Sutter pointed out Dahan’s experience in the courtroom.
This includes a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordering Dahan, a chiropractor at the time, to pay $7 million to Allstate Insurance Company for allegedly violating insurance fraud laws.
Sutter also mentioned a $4 million judgment against Dahan in 2012 stemming from a New Jersey Superior Court ruling also involving Allstate Insurance Company.
Dahan said he was a physician for 10 years before he began working for BSD and had opened two successful clinics in Southern California. According to him, his company opened up to 1,256 offices in 45 states.
“There is no way, no possible way to become this big and not be attacked,” he said.
Following the decision in New Jersey, Dahan said his business at the time appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of New York and won.
Both Moreno and Shepherd said the Harbor District Board was aware of Dahan’s legal history throughout their negotiations.
Despite his connection to Del Norte County, the public wasn’t sold on Dahan’s proposal. Sutter said Lawhon and McGraw’s proposal to revitalize the parks with landscaping, park model accommodations and fishing clinics and sailing programs for kids was a better sounding option.
Sutter also doubted that Harbor District staff had the management skills needed to operate the two RV parks.
Former Del Norte County supervisor Roger Gitlin said he agreed with Sutter and asked why the idea of self-management for the RV parks is coming up now. Previous harbor commission involvement in the parks has been “somewhat less than abysmal,” he noted.
“Scott and Shawn’s proposal makes a lot of sense to me,” he said. “They’re small, but they’re energetic and you can reach them. All due respect to Mr. Dahan, you have a wonderful company, but this is the significance of his portfolio — you’re a dot compared to all of the things he does now. I don’t like that.”
Under the proposed lease agreement between CCHD and Crescent City Holdings, Lawhon and McGraw’s firm, the tenant would have paid a monthly minimum rent of $3,750 for the first year for Redwood Harbor Village and Bayside RV Park. In year two and year three, that monthly minimum rent would increase to $5,125.
For the overflow lot, the tenant would pay the Harbor District a monthly minimum rent of $1,000 during the second year and a monthly minimum rent of $3,333 during the third year.
Crescent City Holdings would also have paid the Harbor District a monthly percentage rent of 12% of all revenues received, which includes things like food truck sales and retail sales, according to Moreno.
